def compute_message_authenticator(radius_packet, packed_req_authenticator,
                                      shared_secret):
        """
        Computes the "Message-Authenticator" of a given RADIUS packet.
        """

        data = prepare_packed_data(radius_packet, packed_req_authenticator)
        radius_hmac = hmac.new(shared_secret, data, hashlib.md5)

        return radius_hmac.digest()