# Md5deep

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Md5deep
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Md5deep.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5deep
> Source revision: 1353580273
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Software for performing cryptographic digests of files}}
{{ref improve|date=March 2013}}
{{Lowercase title}}
{{Single source|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = '''md5deep''' (and '''hashdeep''')
| logo                   =
| screenshot             =
| caption                =
| collapsible            =
| author                 = Jesse Kornblum
| developer              = Jesse Kornblum
| latest_release_version = 4.4
| latest_release_date    = {{release date|2014|01|29}}
| operating_system       = [Cross-platform](/source/Cross-platform)
| programming_language   = [C++](/source/C%2B%2B)
| genre                  =
| license                = [Public domain software](/source/Public_domain_software) (except for [GPLv2](/source/GNU_General_Public_License)-licensed [Tiger](/source/Tiger_(cryptography)) hash function from [Libgcrypt](/source/Libgcrypt))
| website                = {{URL|https://github.com/jessek/hashdeep/}}
}}
'''md5deep''' is a [software](/source/software) package used in the [computer security](/source/computer_security), [system administration](/source/system_administrator) and [computer forensics](/source/computer_forensics) communities to run large numbers of [files](/source/Computer_file) through any of several different [cryptographic](/source/cryptography) [digests](/source/hash_algorithm). It was originally authored by Jesse Kornblum, at the time a special agent of the [Air Force Office of Special Investigations](/source/Air_Force_Office_of_Special_Investigations). {{As of|2017}}, he still maintains it.

The name ''md5deep'' is misleading. Since version 2.0, the ''md5deep'' package contains several different [programs](/source/computer_program) able to perform [MD5](/source/MD5), [SHA-1](/source/SHA-1), [SHA-256](/source/SHA-256), [Tiger192](/source/Tiger_(cryptography)) and [Whirlpool](/source/Whirlpool_(cryptography)) digests, each of them named by the digest type followed by the word "deep". Thus, the name may confuse some people into thinking it only provides the MD5 algorithm when the package supports many more.

''md5deep'' can be invoked in several different ways. Typically users operate it [recursively](/source/recursion), where ''md5deep'' walks through one [directory](/source/directory_(file_systems)) at a time giving digests of each file found, and recursing into any subdirectories within. Its recursive behavior is approximately a [depth-first search](/source/depth-first_search), which has the benefit of presenting files in [lexicographical order](/source/lexicographical_order). On [Unix-like](/source/Unix-like) systems, similar functionality can be often obtained by combining [find](/source/Find_(Unix)) with hashing utilities such as [md5sum](/source/md5sum), [sha256sum](/source/sha256sum) or [tthsum](/source/tthsum).

''md5deep'' exists for [Windows](/source/Microsoft_Windows) and most [Unix](/source/Unix)-based systems, including [OS X](/source/OS_X). It is present in OS X's ''[Fink](/source/Fink_(software))'', ''[Homebrew](/source/Homebrew_(package_management_software))'' and [MacPorts](/source/MacPorts) projects. Binary packages exist for most [free](/source/Free_software) Unix systems. Many vendors initially resist including ''md5deep'' as they mistakenly{{cn|date=August 2013}} believe its functions can be reproduced with one line of shell scripting.<ref>{{Citation |title=#438753 – ITP: md5deep – Recursing file hash calculator – Debian Bug report logs |url=http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=438753}}</ref> The matching function of the program, however, cannot be done easily in shell.{{cn|date=August 2013}}

Because ''md5deep'' was written by an [employee of the U.S. government](/source/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government), on government time, it is in the [public domain](/source/public_domain). Other software surrounding it, such as graphical front-ends, may be copyrighted.

==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
* Hash functions [MD5](/source/MD5), [SHA-1](/source/SHA-1), and [SHA-2](/source/SHA-2) (which includes SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Official website|https://github.com/jessek/hashdeep/}} at ''[GitHub](/source/GitHub)''

Category:Computer security software
Category:Public-domain software with source code
Category:Free software programmed in C

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Md5deep](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5deep) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5deep?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.