Digital Signatures

5 minutes 5 Questions

A digital signature is the result of a cryptographic process that combines the message sender's private key with the content of the message to generate a unique signature. Digital signatures are used to prove the authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation of digital data such as emails, documents…

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Question 1

A company uses digital signatures for ensuring the integrity of internal documents. An employee notices a digital signature mismatch on an important document. What should they do?

Forward the document to all concerned parties Delete the document Ignore the mismatch Report the issue to security officer

Correct Answer: Report the issue to security officer

The correct answer is to report the issue to the security officer. Ignoring the mismatch could lead to compromised data integrity, forwarding the document would spread an untrusted file, and both deleting and manually editing the signature would not resolve the issue and could cause further complications. Creating a new document might not capture the correct digital signatures.

Question 2

A security consultant is called in to investigate a breach in which an attacker altered a digitally signed message. How could they determine the method used by the attacker?

Examine the signature and its validation process Contact the sender to find out about possible changes made Check whether the attacker revoked any certificates Assume the attacker had access to the private key

Correct Answer: Examine the signature and its validation process

Examining the digital signature and its validation process would help identify if an attacker has compromised any aspect of the signing process. Contacting the sender, assuming the attacker's access to private keys, checking certificate revocation, assuming social engineering, or requesting a new public key will not effectively lead to identifying the method the attacker used.

Question 3

A system administrator wants to ensure the authenticity of a received digitally signed document. What should they do to confirm the authenticity?

Check the document's checksum Compare the document with a previous version Verify with the signer's public key Inspect the document properties

Correct Answer: Verify with the signer's public key

To confirm the authenticity of a digitally signed document, the recipient should verify it using the signer's public key. Other options like checking the document's checksum, inspecting properties, comparing versions, analyzing metadata, and requesting the sender's private key are ineffective or not applicable.

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CompTIA Security+ Preparation Package (2025)

Digital Signatures

A Complete Guide to Digital Signatures

CompTIA Security+ - Digital Signatures Example Questions

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