Convert hash string to binary file

Question

What would be the easiest way to convert the text produced by utilities such as sha512sum into a binary file?

I'd like to convert hex string like 77f4de214a5423e3c7df8704f65af57c39c55f08424c75c0931ab09a5bfdf49f5f939f2caeff1e0113d9b3d6363583e4830cf40787100b750cde76f00b8cd3ec (example produced by sha512sum) into a binary file (64 bytes long), in which each byte's value would be equivalent to a pair of letters/digits from the string. I'm looking for a solution that would require minimal amount of tools, so I'd be happy if this can be done easily with bash, sed or some utility from coreutils. I'd rather avoid xxd, as this doesn't seem to handle such string anyway (I'd have to add "addresses" and some whitespace).

I need the hash as a binary file, to convert it into an object file and link with the application that I'm writing. If there's another way to embed such string (in a binary form!) into application (via an array or whatever) - it's also a solution for me.

oliv · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-10 12:07:45Z

4

A bit of sed and echo might do:

for i in $(echo 77f4de214a5423e3c7df8704f65af57c39c55f08424c75c0931ab09a5bfdf49f5f939f2caeff1e0113d9b3d6363583e4830cf40787100b750cde76f00b8cd3ec | sed 's/../& /g'); do
   echo -ne "\x$i"
done > output.bin

The sed command is splitting the hex string into bytes and the echo shows it as hexadecimal character.

Or in a shorter form with sha512sum output, as suggested in the comment:

echo -ne "$(sha512sum some-file.txt | sed 's/ .*$//; s/../\\x&/g')"

edited Aug 10, 2016 at 12:07

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 11:35

oliv

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1 Comment

Freddie Chopin Over a year ago

I managed to do that without a loop: sha512sum somefile.ext | grep -o '[0-9a-f]\{128\}' | echo -en $(sed 's/$[0-9a-f]\{2\}$/\\x\1/g') > hash.bin. Seems a bit shorter than the looping construct.

Thor · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-10 12:00:57Z

2

How about perl:

<<<77f4de214a5423e3c7df8704f65af57c39c55f08424c75c0931ab09a5bfdf49f5f939f2caeff1e0113d9b3d6363583e4830cf40787100b750cde76f00b8cd3ec \
perl -e 'print pack "H*", <STDIN>' > hash.bin

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 12:00

Thor

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Comments

oliv · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-10 12:20:59Z

2

If you have openssl in your system and want a sha512 hash in binary form, you can use this:

openssl dgst -sha512 -binary somefile.txt

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 12:20

oliv

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peternyc · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-10 11:36:45Z

1

If you have node:

node -e "var fs = require('fs'); fs.writeFileSync('binary', new Buffer('77f4de214a5423e3c7df8704f65af57c39c55f08424c75c0931ab09a5bfdf49f5f939f2caeff1e0113d9b3d6363583e4830cf40787100b750cde76f00b8cd3ec', 'hex'))"

answered Aug 10, 2016 at 11:36

peternyc

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Zimba · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-30 04:36:59Z

0

s="77f4de214a5423e3c7df8704f65af57c39c55f08424c75c0931ab09a5bfdf49f5f939f2caeff1e0113d9b3d6363583e4830cf40787100b750cde76f00b8cd3ec"; 
echo -n $s | xxd -r -p > file.bin

 1 File(s)             64 bytes

Tested on Ubuntu 16.04.7

answered Jan 30, 2021 at 4:36

Zimba

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