Hash values are produced by specific algorithms and are used to verify the integrity of the evidence by proving that the data was not modified. Hash values can be thought of as digital fingerprints in that they are unique and play a major role in the identification of evidence and physical images.

One such algorithm, although older and containing vulnerabilities, is the Message Digest (MD5)  cryptographic hashing algorithm, which produces a 128-bit hexadecimal output value.

For a working example, let's open a browser and head over to http://passwordsgenerator.net/md5-hash-generator/.

This site creates hashes of words and sentences as strings. For this example, I've entered the string Digital Forensics with Kali Linux without the parentheses. The MD5 value automatically calculated was displayed as 7E9506C4D9DD85220FB3DF671F09DA35, as seen in the following screenshot:

By removing the K from the Kali, from the same string that now reads Digital Forensics with ali Linux, the MD5 now reads 7A4C7AA85B114E91F247779D6A0B3022, as seen in the following screenshot:

As a quick comparison, we can see that just removing the K from the Kali yields a noticeably different result:

• Digital Forensics with Kali Linux: 7E9506C4D9DD85220FB3DF671F09DA35
• Digital Forensics with ali Linux: 7A4C7AA85B114E91F247779D6A0B3022

I encourage you to try it yourself and also perhaps add a comma or period to the string to further compare hash values.