> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.sitebot.com/api/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.sitebot.com/api/secure-hash.md).

# Secure Hash

A secure hash is used to authenticate access to a public URL.  For example when a storage object visibility is set to 'secure' the URL will require a valid hash parameter.  The hash parameter rotates every hour and is only valid for a few hours.

To generate a secure hash you will need to generate a MD5 checksum in the following format:

md5(apikey+yyyymmddhh+string)

Replace apikey with the secret api key generated in your dashboard.

Replace yyyymmddhh with the current date and time 2023061820 - This would be for June 18th 2023 at 8pm UTC.

Replace string with the value to be hash.  For storage objects this would be the name.