How to Verify sHA-256 Checksum of OS installers for virtual Machines

When downloading OS installers for virtual machine, it is important to check its SHA-256 to ensure its integrity and there is no malicious actor replacing the file. In some cases, when your downloaded installer doesn’t match its SHA-256 to the official ones, it will output an error such as corrupted files and packets being lost while installing it to your virtual machines. The websites where you download the OS installers usually provides the list of SHA-256 checksums.

To verify SHA-256 checksum of your downloaded OS installer type this command line:

For windows:

certutil –hashfile <downloaded installer file path> SHA256

Example:

certutil –hashfile C:/Users/Downloads/software.zip SHA256

For Linux:

sha256sum <downloaded installer file path>

Example:

sha256sum ~/Downloads/software.zip

For Mac OS:

shasum –a 256 <downloaded installer file path>

Example:

shasum –a 256 ~/Downloads/software.zip

The command line will return the file’s checksum. Compare it to the value from the pop over of the file in the Download center interface.