MD5 and SHA1 checksum uses for downloading

Posted by Zac on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Zac
Published on 2011-01-02T15:06:46Z Indexed on 2011/01/02 15:56 UTC
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hashing

I notice that when downloading a lot of open source tools (Eclipse, etc.) there are links for MD5 and SHA1 checksums, and didn't know what these were or what their purpose was.

I know these are hashing algorithms, and I do understand hashing, so my only guess is that these are used for hashing some component of the download targets, and to compare them with "official" hash strings stored server-side. Perhaps that way it can be determined whether or not the targets have been modified from their correct version (for security and other purposes).

Am I close or completely wrong, and if wrong, what are they?!?!

Thanks!

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