Digital Forensic Certification Practice Exam

FastSum is based on which checksum algorithm?

1. SHA-256

2. MD5

3. SHA-1

4. CRC32

The correct answer is: MD5

FastSum utilizes the MD5 (Message-Digest Algorithm 5) checksum algorithm to compute hash values for files. MD5 generates a 128-bit hash value from input data, which is commonly represented as a 32-character hexadecimal number. This capability allows users to verify file integrity and detect duplicates efficiently, which is a key feature of FastSum. While there are other checksum algorithms available, such as SHA-256, SHA-1, and CRC32, they serve different purposes or have varying levels of security and efficiency. SHA-256 is part of the SHA-2 family and provides a more secure hash, but it is not what FastSum is based on. Similarly, SHA-1 is considered weaker than SHA-256 and is generally being phased out due to vulnerabilities. CRC32, while useful for error-checking in network communications and file transfers, is not a cryptographic hash and does not offer the same level of security or collision resistance as MD5. Thus, the underlying mechanism of FastSum is built on MD5, leveraging its balance of performance and reliability for checksumming tasks.