QCryptographicHash embed a checksum into a file (wav)

[ilian]

Hello,

I am quite new to crypto, and I have a task to add a checksum to a files. To be more descriptive they are wave files, and the checksum is contained withing the LSB on each N samples. So the idea is to find if the file has been modified. I saw that QCryptographicHash is something I may use, but if somebody has an experience with it, could you give a point or two. Would be most appreciated.

Regards.

[SGaist]

Hi and welcome to devnet,

Do you mean you want to modfiy a wav file and embed the checksum of the complete file within the file ?

[ilian]

@SGaist

Yes, the algorithm I am thinking is to generate a checksum on each 256 sampleses first bit (lest significent bit), and each new checksum will depend on the previous checksum so we can detect where a wav manipulation has been made.

[SGaist]

You are aware that you'll be adding noise to your audio file doing that ?

In any case, when doing a checksum for a file, you usually do it for the whole unmodified file, you don't embed it within a file because that would mean that you are modifying the file that you want to make verifiable.

[ilian]

@SGaist
I know I am making noise inside of it, but as far as I know the 1 bit is always a noise, 0, 1 mostly... so I am OK adding my own noise to the file and make it to be a checksum. I saw QCryptographicHash so I wonder if this is easy to do with it instead of using a openssl/md5 or HMAC. Also a point or two would be welcome.

[SGaist]

How big is that file and would you be distributing it ?

Also, why not make a file wide md5 ?

[ilian]

@SGaist

Well the problem is that the file would be of unknown size, but at least the size must be MD5-able if I can say so. It won't be needed to checksum a file of 1-2 seconds. I don't know yet the full requirements, that's why I ask for advice and a simple hint how to use the QCrypto for this since it sounds OK for the job.

Regards.

[SGaist]

Then it's best to have all the requirement before continuing. Like I said modifying a file content to add checksum here and there sounds pretty strange.

[ilian]

@SGaist
OK, I am adding a tag "I know what I am doing", so could you just point me a good example of the QCryptographicHash of a 256 byte key, so I can start doing it?

Thanks.

[SGaist]

QByteArray hashed = QCryptographicHash::hash("stuff-to-hash", QCryptographicHash::Md5);