Overview
A digital signature provides three key security properties: authentication, non-repudiation, and integrity. It ensures that a message was created by a specific sender and has not been altered in transit.
How it Works
- Hashing: The sender creates a hash of the document.
- Signing: The sender encrypts the hash with their private key.
- Verification: The recipient decrypts the signature with the sender's public key and compares the resulting hash with a new hash of the document.
Use Cases
- Software distribution (code signing).
- Financial transactions.
- Legal documents and contracts.