QuickerHash

Why make it?

A friend of mine teaches digital security to journalists, human rights workers, and other such people who really need to be aware of digital security.

Unfortunately, we in the digital security developer community have sort of failed them. We’ve done great work building tools for us, but not so much tools for them. Or, as XKCD has it,

You might think that sha256sum is easy enough to use, but the reality is as soon as you expect non-technical users to open a terminal window you’ve lost at least half your audience.

At present, my friend is stuck using Ted Smith’s QuickHash-GUI in his digital security classes. On the plus side, it achieves the objective of letting nontechnical users compute hashes without ever needing to interact with a terminal. On the minus side, it’s not exactly easy to use itself: the user interface is pretty clunky.

We can do better.

So, with a respectful nod of the head to Ted Smith and thanks for his work, here’s QuickerHash.

Features

• Crossplatform (tested on macOS, Windows, and Fedora Linux)
• Prebuilt binaries (macOS/Apple Silicon, Windows/x86_64, Linux x86_64)
• macOS binaries are properly signed and notarized by Apple
• 100% libre software (Apache 2.0 licensed)
• Supports
  • BLAKE2B-160
  • BLAKE2B-256
  • BLAKE2B-384
  • BLAKE2B-512
  • BLAKE2S-128
  • BLAKE2S-160
  • BLAKE2S-224
  • BLAKE2S-256
  • BLAKE3-256
  • DSTU7564-256
  • DSTU7564-384
  • DSTU7564-512
  • GOST3411
  • GOST3411-2012-256
  • GOST3411-2012-512
  • HARAKA-256
  • HARAKA-512
  • KECCAK-224
  • KECCAK-256
  • KECCAK-288
  • KECCAK-384
  • KECCAK-512
  • MD2
  • MD4
  • MD5
  • PARALLELHASH128-256
  • PARALLELHASH256-512
  • RIPEMD128
  • RIPEMD160
  • RIPEMD256
  • RIPEMD320
  • SHA-1
  • SHA-224
  • SHA-256
  • SHA-384
  • SHA-512
  • SHA-512/224
  • SHA-512/256
  • SHA3-224
  • SHA3-256
  • SHA3-384
  • SHA3-512
  • SHAKE128-256
  • SHAKE256-512
  • SKEIN-1024-1024
  • SKEIN-1024-384
  • SKEIN-1024-512
  • SKEIN-256-128
  • SKEIN-256-160
  • SKEIN-256-224
  • SKEIN-256-256
  • SKEIN-512-128
  • SKEIN-512-160
  • SKEIN-512-224
  • SKEIN-512-256
  • SKEIN-512-384
  • SKEIN-512-512
  • SM3
  • TIGER
  • TUPLEHASH128-256
  • TUPLEHASH256-512
  • WHIRLPOOL
• Good look-and-feel: it uses FlatLAF, which is the basis for the look-and-feel used in JetBrains’ Intellij IDEA.
• Written in 100% Java. I’d prefer writing it in Rust, myself, but there are a lot more Java hackers than Rust ones, and that’s good for its long-term viability.
• Self-contained executable: you don't need a Java virtual machine, as the executables run in their own Java environment. (Yes, this does make it a 32MiB download. It’s 2026; get over it.)
• A user interface designed by someone who’s formally studied user interface design.

Using pre-built binaries

macOS

Pre-built binaries exist for Macs running Apple Silicon. They're properly code signed and notarized by Apple. They install just like any other application contained in a disk image.

Linux

The RPM I provide here is signed by my GnuPG certificate. I'd suggest:

$ gpg --keyserver hkps://keys.openpgp.org \
    --recv-key CC11BE7CBBED77B120F37B011DCBDC01B44427C7
$ gpg --armor --export CC11BE7CBBED77B120F37B011DCBDC01B44427C7 > key.asc
$ sudo rpm --import key.asc 

This will allow you to ensure the integrity of your download.

Windows

Unfortunately, I don't have the disposable income to afford a Windows code signing certificate — sorry. You can, however, check the detached GnuPG signature for the package.