Find algorithms to a hash value using Jacksum

 If you need to find the algorithm to a CRC, checksum or hash value you can use Jacksum.

For those who don't know: Jacksum is a free and cross platform data integrity software tool. For more information go to https://jacksum.net

Let's keep things simple and let's pretend that you know your algorithm returns a message digest of 16 bits, and the the message digest is d893 in hex, lowercase. Input was 050000 in hex, lowercase. You can call jacksum with the following options:

• Option -a unknown:16 means you don't know the algorithm, but at least you know it returns 16 bits
• Option -E hex means you want a hexadecimal encoding for the message digest
• Option -q hex:050000 means you want to calcualate the message digest from the hex input 050000 quickly
• Option -e d893 means an expected hash value of d893, expressed as hex
  

jacksum -a unknown:16 -q hex:050000 -E hex -e d893 

produces the following output:

Trying 13 algorithms with a width of 16 bits that are supported by Jacksum 3.0.0 ...

Trying 30 CRC algorithms with a width of 16 bits by testing against well known CRCs ...
crc:16,1021,FFFF,false,false,FFFF
    --> CRC-16/GENIBUS

Trying all CRC algorithms with a width of 16 bits by brute force (be patient!) ...
crc:16,1021,FFFF,false,false,FFFF
crc:16,37D2,FFFF,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,3E2D,0000,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,4175,FFFF,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,4A5B,FFFF,true,true,0000
crc:16,5A41,FFFF,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,5C63,FFFF,true,true,0000
crc:16,6287,FFFF,true,true,0000
crc:16,649C,0000,false,true,FFFF
crc:16,6D55,FFFF,true,true,0000
crc:16,75AC,FFFF,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,7D64,FFFF,false,false,FFFF
crc:16,81A6,FFFF,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,B9F9,FFFF,true,true,0000
crc:16,C3D6,FFFF,false,false,FFFF
crc:16,D436,0000,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,D6D2,0000,false,true,FFFF
crc:16,DA9C,FFFF,true,false,FFFF
crc:16,E03E,FFFF,false,false,FFFF
crc:16,F701,FFFF,true,false,FFFF


Jacksum: algorithms tested: 1048620
Jacksum: algorithms found: 21

Jacksum: elapsed time: 6 s, 460 ms

Means Jacksum has tested more than one million algorithms in about 7 seconds and it found 21 matching algorithms. Each of those returns the same CRC value. Test with more input/output sequences and/or longer input sequences in order to find the right algorithm. The most likely algorithm is printed with a name if it is a well known CRC. In this example it has been identified as the CRC-16/GENIBUS.

Once you have identified the correct algorithm, you can calculate your own input data using the CRC definitions that have been found:

jacksum -a crc:16,1021,FFFF,false,false,FFFF -E hex -q hex:050000
d893 3

The output "d893 3" means that 3 bytes have been read (050000) in order to produce the 16 bit (2 byte) hexadecimal value d893 using the algorithm as defined by -a.

Mission completed.

Cheers,
Johann