[Electionteam] putting a security hash on data

[Lulu Friesdat]

This is great. Thanks to you both.

On Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 6:06 PM Bruce Korb <bruce.korb at gmail.com> wrote:

> P.S. The MD5 caveat is applicable mostly for DoD stuff, but there's still
> no reason to use it since we have SHA.
>
> Also, each CVR should get a hash and that has list would be put into a
> file of the hashes. *THAT* file then gets
> hashed to produce the hash of all hashes. As the SuperUser article/posting
> explains, any 1 bit change should flip
> 1/2 of the 256 or 512 bits of the hash (on average).
>
> The attack is to figure out how to alter the file to represent what you
> want while at the same time producing
> the same hash code. Even MD5 is pretty difficult even if it's far easier
> than SHA.
>
>  - Bruce
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 2:55 PM Bruce Korb <bruce.korb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> SHA256 or SHA512. "SHA" stands for "Secure Hash Algorithm" of 256 or 512
>> bits. The 512 bit one is faster than the 256 bit one on 64 bit platforms
>> and the reverse is true on 32 bit platforms.
>> Either one should be computationally too difficult to break for the next
>> few centuries. Either should be available for most platforms. I use 'em on
>> both Linux and MacOS, but there's a Windows one, too.
>>
>>  - Bruce
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 11:13 AM Lulu Friesdat <shugahworks at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Ray,
>>> Do you hash the CVRs?
>>> We are going to download a bunch that we have links for and make them
>>> available to the public. We'd like to hash them so we know that the data
>>> has not changed when people use it.
>>>
>>> Do you have suggestions for this?
>>>
>>> I found these two links.
>>>
>>>
>>>    - Here is some info about using hashes to ensure that a document has
>>>    not changed.
>>>    -
>>>       https://superuser.com/questions/812812/how-can-hashes-be-used-to-efficiently-keep-track-of-version-changes-in-documents
>>>       - They also recommend this article, although they warn that MD5
>>>    has security issues.
>>>    - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5#Applications
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you.
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Kind Regards,
>>>
>>> @LuluFriesdat
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Co-Founder & Executive Director, SMART Elections
>>> <https://smartelections.us/>
>>>
>>> *TEDx Talk <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQvn3zJus_c>* - I use games
>>> to help us think about how to improve U.S. elections. Enjoy & share!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Electionteam at citizensoversight.org
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>>>
>>

-- 

Kind Regards,

@LuluFriesdat



Co-Founder & Executive Director, SMART Elections
<https://smartelections.us/>

*TEDx Talk <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQvn3zJus_c>* - I use games to
help us think about how to improve U.S. elections. Enjoy & share!
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