Checking the hash of files is probably the safest way to ensure that the respective files haven’t been tempered with. With the help of cryptographic hash functions, you can check the file’s checksum to confirm if it was modified or not.
On Linux, you can easily use the Terminal in order to generate hash values of files and compare/verify them accordingly. Or, you can use an app with a proper GUI, and do the same with no more than a few mouse clicks.
Collision is one such app, a straightforward and lightweight graphical user interface tool for generating, comparing and verifying MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256 and SHA-512 hashes.
Dramatic name, but effortless functionality
With Collision, you can now verify any type of file or generate hashes in order to protect yourself (or others) again malicious or tampered files.
Best of all, it’s almost effortless to use: by selecting one of the two tabs, you can generate hash values, or verify a file against a checksum.
That being said, simply add the file that you want to generate the hash value to check the resulting values with the ones from official sources.
How to get and install
Even though the app is mainly designed for GNOME-based systems, it should work without problems on any distribution, just as long as the requirements are met.
You can either build from the source by going to the project’s official GitHub repository page, or directly from Flathub.
Conclusion
Even though not particularly impressive, Collision is a nice little app that looks nice and does its job well. It allows you to instantly generate hash MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512 values for any file, as well as compare the hash values of two files with just a few mouse clicks.
