Verify Windows ISO file in Bash

Emilio Romero — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 22:07:06 +0000

To check the integrity and authenticity of the data you have downloaded, especially to ensure it hasn't been corrupted during download or tampered with by malicious actors, follow these steps:

1. Download & Obtain the Hash

First, download the ISO file of the product you want.
Next, and very importantly, locate the corresponding SHA256 hash value provided by the official source (e.g., on their download page, a separate .sha256 file, or a documentation page).

2. Open Bash terminal

After successfully downloading the ISO file, open your Bash terminal and navigate to the directory where you downloaded the ISO file. Then, type the following command, replacing YOUR_OBTAINED_HASH with the actual hash value you got from the source, and FILE_NAME.iso with the exact name of your downloaded file:

echo "YOUR_OBTAINED_HASH *FILE_NAME.iso" | shasum -a 256 --check

If everything went well, the terminal should return:

FILE_NAME.iso: OK

If the result was an OK, it will confirm that the file has not been damaged, modified or altered in any way compared to the original.

Example

If your downloaded file is Win11_22H2_Spanish_x64v2.iso and the official hash is C8CXXX...

echo "C8CXXX *Win11_22H2_Spanish_x64v2.iso" | shasum -a 256 --check

Win11_22H2_Spanish_x64v2.iso: OK

DEV Community: Emilio Romero

Verify Windows ISO file in Bash

1. Download & Obtain the Hash

2. Open Bash terminal

Example