I'm implementing a multilevel security environment on several several web servers running Debian. I've done quite a bit of reading on fast hash checking algorithms to compliment the other security components.
It seems Adler-32 is quite fast and compact (which I'm quite fond of), although I understand it can be 'easily' forged. This aspect of it makes me a bit nervous, so is there some way to safeguard against it being forged somehow?
No. CRCs can also be easily forged. If you are worried about forging (and make sure that you understand why you are worried about forging), then you need to use a cryptographically secure hash. E.g. SHA-2.
No. You cannot condition Adler-32 to be secure, for a simple reason which will affect even a perfect non-reversible hash function you might hope to find.
No 32-bit checksum or digest can be meaningfully resistant to attack because there are only four billion possible outcomes in a modified message. This means that to brute-force a collision takes a comparatively trivial amount of time.
To put this in real-world terms, hashcash is giving me an estimate of 874 seconds to brute-force 32 bits of of a SHA1 digest. Any checksum which you choose for speed is going to get proportionally easier.
That's even before you start to consider potential weaknesses in the algorithm which might yield a more efficient approach than brute force, and the use of GPU computing to accelerate the attack.
