Use OpenSSL (downloadable from http://www.openssl.org/) to compute the message d

Question

Use OpenSSL (downloadable from http://www.openssl.org/) to compute the message digest MD5 for a file called MD5_INPUT containing the string "<password>||<assignment_ID>||<student_number>", where you replace the <student_number> with your login name, the <assignment_ID> with “a1” and the <password> with a random 8 character string. The symbol "||" in the above expression stands for concatenation using a one "space" separator. The result will tag comments in a general listing.

From http://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/openssl.html study the input options and parameters of the openssl command ("openssl.exe" in windows, often available under specialized tools such as "md5sum.exe") and submit the needed openssl commandline used (into a file called "CMD"), as well as the output of the command (a hexadecimal string) into a file called MD5_OUTPUT". Upload the three mentioned files.

Explanation / Answer

Hi,

To calculate the MD5 digest of a text file containg the text (as you mentioned), we will use openssl utility available as open source to download from the web.

Once propery installed :

1) open command prompt

2) type "openssl dgst -md5 C:MD5_INPUT"

It will create a MD5 message digest.

I tried with the contents of MD5_INPUT as "12345678 || a1 || nikhil"

In above string, the password is "12345678", the assignment_id is "a1" and the student_number is "nikhil".

The message digest in hex form on my machine is :

MD5(C:MD5_INPUT)= 60df059ada88fba601a0bd722097c774

Probably, for more information about what "openssl" command does, type "openssl -h"

Coming to the next part of your answer,saving the hex into the CMD file :

there are options available in the "dgst" command. For example, to save the digest into the output file named CMD , type this

openssl dgst -out CMD -md5 C:MD5_INPUT

The above command will save the output in the CMD file.

Thanks

Nikhil Jain

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