In Linux, Unix and most Unix-like operating system such as CentOS, RedHat Fedora Core, Ubuntu and SuSE Linux, there is built-in functionality to calculate and generate the hash value of MD5 without having to download and install additional program. The program that can show the MD5 hash for text, digits, numbers or string is md5sum.

md5sum is installed by default in most Linux and Unix operating system, including on most web hosts or web servers powered by cPanel or Plesk, where administrators or webmasters have to commonly generate MD5 hash for the password used in PHP scripts or other web applications.

To generate MD5 hash value for a combination of characters and digits using md5sum, use the command syntax below (with quotation marks between the string to generate the MD5 hash for):

echo -n “string” | md5sum

The MD5 hash will be displayed below the command. Administrators can run the command on console screen or via SSH (Telnet not recommended though as it’s not encrypted and secured).