md5 hash function in binary format

Question

I am trying to calculate the digests of a file using md5 algorithm. I am asked to format the output to be in binary not hex. So this is my command in terminal (I use mac):

openssl dgst -md5 -binary ~/Documents/msg_Joudi.txt > ~/Documents/hash.txt

this generates hash.txt file, but its content is not in binary format, and I do not know where is the error.

That looks right to me. I copied your code, ran $ file -I ~/Desktop/hash.txt from terminal to check the file type, and it returned: /Desktop/hash.txt: application/octet-stream; charset=binary What did you get instead of binary? — femmestem
– femmestem, Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 8:17
@user233531 Your way of creating a binary md5 is correct. Output looks good, as well. Why do you think the file is not binary? And, besides, this is not a programming related question. — Nikolai Ruhe
– Nikolai Ruhe, Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 9:00
Binary should be 0s and 1s right? Sorry I frequently see questions in many topics — user233531
– user233531, Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 9:06
@NikolaiRuhe Why do you believe this is not a programming related question? He's trying to calculate an algorithm programmically and format the output. Which forum would you categorize this under? — femmestem
– femmestem, Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 9:08

Cyborg · Accepted Answer · 2023-10-01 04:26:54Z

6

Create MD5 hash of file: msgFile.txt > Convert to Binary and save:

cat msgFile.txt | openssl dgst -md5 -binary > hash.bin.txt

Save binary in Base64 format:

cat msgFile.txt | openssl dgst -md5 -binary | base64 > hash.bin.b64.txt

Save binary in Hexadecimal representation:

cat msgFile.txt | openssl dgst -md5 -binary | xxd -ps -c16 > hash.bin.hex.txt

Use Python to convert binary to Integers:

python -c "print(int('$(cat msgFile.txt | openssl dgst -md5 -binary | xxd -ps -c16)', 16))" > hash.bin.int.txt

edited Oct 1, 2023 at 4:26

answered Feb 7, 2020 at 6:47

Cyborg

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Comments

Gyre · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-01 07:12:44Z

0

The OP says he wants binary and then says "Binary should be 0s and 1s right?". Although, probably unlikely, if he really wants a binary number output, do this:

$ echo -e "xx\nyy" >in.txt
$ perl -ln0777e 'use Digest::MD5 "md5"; print "0b".unpack("B*",md5($_))' <in.txt
0b001111000101011000010000100101100011010101000101111000101000000011110110011010110011010000!

Meaning of above:

slurp in whole file into $_, calculate md5 digest on $_ to create binary data
use unpack to convert binary data to binary number string

If he really wants binary data, modify the above:

$ perl -ln0777e 'use Digest::MD5 "md5"; print md5 $_' <in.txt >binout.txt

answered Sep 1, 2021 at 7:12

Gyre

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