# How do open source programs not get hacked to pieces?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-open-source-programs-not-get-hacked-to-pieces/399401>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 10, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-open-source-programs-not-get-hacked-to-pieces/399401 "2007-04-10T00:28:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-open-source-programs-not-get-hacked-to-pieces/399401/21 "2007-04-11T01:30:02Z")

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Often [MD5 checksums](http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/using_md5sums.html) are used to verify the integrity of data being downloaded. This makes it more difficult to pass off modified code as the genuine article.

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