What is a checksum and who cares?

While compiling from source is the recommended and most secure way to build the Shadow platform, the team realizes this is an advanced technique that a large number of users aren't comfortable with. For most users, each release is distributed with source code and pre-compiled distributions for Windows, Mac & Linux.

To ensure the highest level of security, the Shadow Project team provides sha256sums for all of these releases. Each checksum is a hash of the download file that verify nothing has been added or taken away either in-transit or by a third party. By using sha256 encryption with these sums every computer will generate the same hash unless the file has been compromised, which in response, will generate a different hash.

It is recommended to always validate the Shadow build releases with the provided sha256sums.

Validate Shadow checksums on Linux:

Most Linux distributions come with the sha256sum.

Beginner Hint: only copy code after $

Download latest Linux release from Github:

$ cd Downloads ~/Downloads$ wget https://github.com/shadowproject/shadow/releases/download/v1.4.0.3/shadow_1.4.0.3_linux64.zip

Run sha256sum on downloaded file:

~/Downloads$ sha256sum shadow_1.4.0.3_linux64.zip

sha256sum hash result: baf8b6ebeac7e7bf2f21ed53f34735a8d3db98e91a7245212533532ec4acb567

compare sha256sum of downloaded file to official file:

Visit https://github.com/shadowproject/shadow/releases/tag/v1.4.0.3 Find "sha256sums" section Verify sha256sum for "shadow_1.4.0.3_linux64.zip" file

baf8b6ebeac7e7bf2f21ed53f34735a8d3db98e91a7245212533532ec4acb567 shadow_1.4.0.3_linux64.zip

Ensure both checksums are identical before installing software

Validate Shadow checksums on the web:

There are a number of hash generators online, this tutorial will highlight Hash Online Convert - http://hash.online-convert.com/sha256-generator

Download preferred Shadow OS release from Github

https://github.com/shadowproject/shadow/releases/download/v1.4.0.3/shadow_1.4.0.3_win64.zip

Visit Hash Online Convert:

http://hash.online-convert.com/sha256-generator

Find "Or upload and generate a SHA-256 checksum of a file :" section Select "Choose File" button Find downloaded Shadow OS release file Select "Open" button Select "Convert file" button

Hash converter:

File gets submitted to the website and loads a new page showing "Your hash has been successfully generated." This page shows the hash of the uploaded file in a variety of hash outputs; hex , HEX , h:e:x & base64

Value to look for: hex: 68844337c068dcb773c58991d5b29b8f5701de43d6bd64fe1c55c468c61fe737

compare sha256sum of downloaded file to official file:

Visit https://github.com/shadowproject/shadow/releases/tag/v1.4.0.3 Find "sha256sums" section Verify sha256sum for "shadow_1.4.0.3_win64.zip" file

68844337c068dcb773c58991d5b29b8f5701de43d6bd64fe1c55c468c61fe737 shadow_1.4.0.3_win64.zip