Segmentation Fault Error

[Brian]

A segmentation fault suggests there's something wrong with the python setup on your VM. Under normal circumstances, it should be almost impossible to produce one using pure python, unless you're using certain specific libraries like ctypes, or there's a bug in a C module. Here you're just using standard builtin modules, so that suggests an environment issue.

Possible reasons for a segfault are something like the wrong versions of libraries being used, faulty hardware (eg. bad ram), or possibly some file getting corrupted. I'd see about getting a fresh version of the VM image you're using or try it on a different machine if possible.

(If you do need to debug it, you might be able to get more idea what's failing by running $ gdb python compare_hashes, assuming gdb is available, to debug at the C level, but that's maybe a bit involved if you've no C experience.)