312-50V10 · Question #803
What is the main security service a cryptographic hash provide?
The correct answer is D. Integrity and computational in-feasibility. The primary security services of a cryptographic hash function are data integrity verification and computational infeasibility, meaning it is practically impossible to reverse the hash or forge a matching input.
Question
What is the main security service a cryptographic hash provide?
Options
- AIntegrity and ease of computation
- BMessage authentication and collision resistance
- CIntegrity and collision resistance
- DIntegrity and computational in-feasibility
How the community answered
(54 responses)- A7% (4)
- B2% (1)
- C2% (1)
- D89% (48)
Why each option
The primary security services of a cryptographic hash function are data integrity verification and computational infeasibility, meaning it is practically impossible to reverse the hash or forge a matching input.
Ease of computation is a performance design goal of hash functions, not a security service - it describes efficiency, not a protection mechanism.
Message authentication requires a shared secret key (as provided by HMAC), which a plain cryptographic hash does not include; listing collision resistance alone also omits the broader pre-image resistance that defines computational infeasibility.
Collision resistance is one specific component of the broader computational infeasibility property, making option D a more complete and accurate description of the full security guarantee a hash function provides.
Cryptographic hash functions provide integrity by producing a fixed-length digest that detectably changes if the underlying data is altered in any way. Computational infeasibility - encompassing pre-image resistance (inability to derive input from output) and the practical impossibility of finding collisions - is the foundational security guarantee that makes hash-based integrity checks trustworthy and unforgeably binding to the original data.
Concept tested: Cryptographic hash function integrity and infeasibility properties
Source: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.180-4.pdf
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