diff --git a/log/log.go b/log/log.go
index 6abceed2c43..c3e1feb5083 100644
--- a/log/log.go
+++ b/log/log.go
@@ -160,12 +160,13 @@ type stdoutWriter struct {
 	isatty    bool
 }
 
+// LogLineChecksum computes a CRC32 over the log line, which can be checked by
+// log-validator to ensure no unexpected log corruption has occurred.
 func LogLineChecksum(line string) string {
 	crc := crc32.ChecksumIEEE([]byte(line))
-	// Using the hash.Hash32 doesn't make this any easier
-	// as it also returns a uint32 rather than []byte
-	buf := make([]byte, binary.MaxVarintLen32)
-	binary.PutUvarint(buf, uint64(crc))
+	buf := make([]byte, crc32.Size)
+	// Error is unreachable because we provide a supported type and buffer size
+	_, _ = binary.Encode(buf, binary.LittleEndian, crc)
 	return base64.RawURLEncoding.EncodeToString(buf)
 }
 
diff --git a/log/log_test.go b/log/log_test.go
index fad3fcf3d80..4d8f23c985e 100644
--- a/log/log_test.go
+++ b/log/log_test.go
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/jmhodges/clock"
+
 	"github.com/letsencrypt/boulder/test"
 )
 
@@ -101,8 +102,8 @@ func TestStdoutLogger(t *testing.T) {
 	logger.Warning("Warning log")
 	logger.Info("Info log")
 
-	test.AssertEquals(t, stdout.String(), "1970-01-01 prefix 6 log.test pcbo7wk Info log\n")
-	test.AssertEquals(t, stderr.String(), "1970-01-01 prefix 3 log.test 46_ghQg [AUDIT] Error Audit\n1970-01-01 prefix 4 log.test 97r2xAw Warning log\n")
+	test.AssertEquals(t, stdout.String(), "1970-01-01 prefix 6 log.test JSP6nQ Info log\n")
+	test.AssertEquals(t, stderr.String(), "1970-01-01 prefix 3 log.test 4xe4gA [AUDIT] Error Audit\n1970-01-01 prefix 4 log.test d52dyA Warning log\n")
 }
 
 func TestSyslogMethods(t *testing.T) {
@@ -342,3 +343,28 @@ func TestLogAtLevelEscapesNewlines(t *testing.T) {
 
 	test.Assert(t, strings.Contains(buf.String(), "foo\\nbar"), "failed to escape newline")
 }
+
+func TestLogLineChecksum(t *testing.T) {
+	testCases := []struct {
+		name     string
+		function func(string) string
+		input    string
+		expected string
+	}{
+		{
+			name:     "LogLineChecksum with Hello, World!",
+			function: LogLineChecksum,
+			input:    "Hello, World!",
+			expected: "0MNK7A",
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range testCases {
+		t.Run(tc.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			checksum := tc.function(tc.input)
+			if checksum != tc.expected {
+				t.Fatalf("got %q, want %q", checksum, tc.expected)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
diff --git a/log/validator/validator.go b/log/validator/validator.go
index a73330cb3f3..6b02f83ae67 100644
--- a/log/validator/validator.go
+++ b/log/validator/validator.go
@@ -186,9 +186,9 @@ func lineValid(text string) error {
 	}
 	checksum := fields[5]
 	_, err := base64.RawURLEncoding.DecodeString(checksum)
-	if err != nil || len(checksum) != 7 {
+	if err != nil || len(checksum) != 6 {
 		return fmt.Errorf(
-			"%s expected a 7 character base64 raw URL decodable string, got %q: %w",
+			"%s expected a 6 character base64 raw URL decodable string, got %q: %w",
 			errorPrefix,
 			checksum,
 			errInvalidChecksum,
@@ -204,7 +204,8 @@ func lineValid(text string) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 	// Check the extracted checksum against the computed checksum
-	if computedChecksum := log.LogLineChecksum(line); checksum != computedChecksum {
+	computedChecksum := log.LogLineChecksum(line)
+	if checksum != computedChecksum {
 		return fmt.Errorf("%s invalid checksum (expected %q, got %q)", errorPrefix, computedChecksum, checksum)
 	}
 	return nil
diff --git a/log/validator/validator_test.go b/log/validator/validator_test.go
index fc543b6529f..72c8de08b65 100644
--- a/log/validator/validator_test.go
+++ b/log/validator/validator_test.go
@@ -6,13 +6,18 @@ import (
 	"github.com/letsencrypt/boulder/test"
 )
 
-func TestLineValidAccepts(t *testing.T) {
-	err := lineValid("2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 boulder-wfe[1595]: kKG6cwA Caught SIGTERM")
+func TestLineValidAcceptsNew(t *testing.T) {
+	err := lineValid("2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 boulder-wfe[1595]: kJBuDg Caught SIGTERM")
 	test.AssertNotError(t, err, "errored on valid checksum")
 }
 
+func TestLineValidRejectsOld(t *testing.T) {
+	err := lineValid("2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 boulder-wfe[1595]: kKG6cwA Caught SIGTERM")
+	test.AssertError(t, err, "didn't error on old checksum format")
+}
+
 func TestLineValidRejects(t *testing.T) {
-	err := lineValid("2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 boulder-wfe[1595]: xxxxxxx Caught SIGTERM")
+	err := lineValid("2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 boulder-wfe[1595]: xxxxxx Caught SIGTERM")
 	test.AssertError(t, err, "didn't error on invalid checksum")
 }
 
@@ -23,10 +28,10 @@ func TestLineValidRejectsNotAChecksum(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestLineValidNonOurobouros(t *testing.T) {
-	err := lineValid("2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 boulder-wfe[1595]: xxxxxxx Caught SIGTERM")
+	err := lineValid("2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 boulder-wfe[1595]: xxxxxx Caught SIGTERM")
 	test.AssertError(t, err, "didn't error on invalid checksum")
 
-	selfOutput := "2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 log-validator[1337]: xxxxxxx " + err.Error()
+	selfOutput := "2020-07-06T18:07:43.109389+00:00 70877f679c72 datacenter 6 log-validator[1337]: xxxxxx " + err.Error()
 	err2 := lineValid(selfOutput)
 	test.AssertNotError(t, err2, "expected no error when feeding lineValid's error output into itself")
 }