All Exams Test series for 1 year @ ₹349 only
Question

Which cryptographic mechanism is used to verify the sender’s identity and message integrity in a digital signature system ?

This question was previously asked in
UPSSSC Lower PCS 2026 Question Paper (23-Aug-2026)
The correct answer is

Hashing with private key signing

A digital signature has to prove two things at once: that the message has not been altered, and that it really came from the claimed sender. The mechanism therefore combines two operations.

First the message is put through a cryptographic hash function to produce a short fixed-length digest. Any change to the message, however small, changes the digest, which is what secures integrity.

Then the sender encrypts that digest with their own private key. Because only the sender holds that key, anyone can decrypt the digest with the sender's public key and, on finding it matches a freshly computed hash of the message, is assured of the sender's identity and of non-repudiation.

The other options fail one of the two tests. Symmetric key encryption alone uses a shared key, so either party could have produced the message and identity cannot be proved. Plaintext compression only shortens data. Salting of passwords defends stored password hashes against precomputed attacks and has nothing to do with signing a message.

Hence, the answer is hashing with private key signing.

Was this answer helpful?

Similar Questions

  1. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the “right to be forgotten” allows an individual to :

  2. Which of the following statements is correct regarding the creation of the World Wide Web ?

  3. Which of the following transport layer protocols guarantees reliable, in-order data delivery and establishes a connection using a three-way handshake ?

  4. The “Quote Post” feature on X (formerly Twitter) is used to :

  5. Which of the following is the correct sequence of the TCP/IP protocol layers (top to bottom) ?


Important Questions from Internet

  1. Which one of the following is called a super-network or meta-network?

  2. A domain name is a unique name given to each website on the internet. The last part of the domain name is known as a domain extension. Which of the following is a domain extension of any government website?

  3. In the URL, https://www.d2h.com/login.php, which component identifies the path of a web page?

  4. In the domain of computers and the internet, what is the full form of URL?

  5. Which one of the following is NOT a web browser?

Need Expert Advice?
Test Series
UPSSSC Exams img
State Exams
UPSSSC ASO 2026 Mock Test Series
25 Tests 4 Tests Free
650 Attempts
4.9(20)
English, Hindi
More Questions from UPSSSC Exams

Start Your Preparation with Prepp Mobile App

Download the app from Google Play & App Store
Download the app from Google Play & App Store
Prepp Mobile App