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National Software Reference Library

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The National Software Reference Library (NSRL), a project of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is supported by the United States Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice, federal, state, and local law enforcement, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to promote efficient and effective use of computer technology in the forensic investigation of crimes involving computers.

Reference Data Set

The NSRL collects software from various sources and computes message digests from them. The digests are stored in the Reference Data Set (RDS) which can be used to identify "known" files on digital media. This will help alleviate much of the effort involved in determining which files are important as evidence on computers or file systems that have been seized as part of criminal investigations.[1]

NIST maintains a collection of original software media in order to provide repeatability of the calculated hash values, ensuring admissibility of this data in court.

Reference Data Set Version 2.14, October 2006, has over 11 million unique SHA-1, MD5 and CRC32 values. The data set is available at no cost to the public.

In 2004 the NRSL released a set of hashes for verifyinh eVoting software, as part of the US Election Assistance Commission's Electronic Voting Security Strategy.[2]

References

  1. ^ Steve Mead (2006). "Unique file identification in the National Software Reference Library". Digital Investigation. 3 (3): 138–150. ISSN 1742-2876Zsoi=10.1016/j.diin.2006.08.010. {{cite journal}}: Check |issn= value (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Verton, Dan. "Feds Issue Test Copies of E-voting Software". Computer World. Retrieved 1 September 2010.