wrong md5 checksum

[Peter Pearson]

On Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:54:05 +0200, kkwweett <kkwweett at hotmail.fr> wrote:
> kkwweett a écrit :
>> Hi,
>> 
>> the download page (http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.0/) for 
>> Python 3000 shows :
>> 
>> 9119625244b17aa35ed94b655a2b2135  13491200  python-3.0b1.msi
>> 
>> but I got
>> 
>> 9119625244a57aa35ed94b655a2b2135  13491200  python-3.0b1.msi
>> 
>> (44a57 rather than 44b17 )
>> 
[snip]
> Does anyone know what can be done to decide wether the file is corrupted 
> or the checksum given is wrong ?

For what it's worth, md5sum (GNU coreutils) 5.93 agrees with
your result.

This interesting almost-agreement could result from

 A. an error in the software that computed the value for the web page,
 B. a transcription error in putting the checksum on the web page,
 C. accidental corruption of the file, or
 D. a deliberate attempt to substitute a file with a similar MD5 sum.

Possibility C is unlikely, but would be the most exciting
development in cryptology this year.  If C turns out to be the
explanation, I hope someone will make sure sci.crypt gets told.
Possibility D would be awfully interesting, too.

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