312-50V9 Question #336: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

The correct answer is A: Collision. A cryptographic collision is when two distinct inputs produce the same hash output, which is a fundamental threat to the integrity guarantees of hash functions.

Question

There are several ways to gain insight on how a cryptosystem works with the goal of reverse engineering the process. A term describes when two pieces of data result in the same value is?

Options

ACollision
BCollusion
CPolymorphism
DEscrow

Explanation

A cryptographic collision is when two distinct inputs produce the same hash output, which is a fundamental threat to the integrity guarantees of hash functions.

Common mistakes.

B. Collusion refers to a secret agreement or cooperation between parties to commit fraud or deception, which is a human behavior concept and not a property of cryptographic hash function outputs.
C. Polymorphism in security describes malware that mutates its code or signature to evade detection by antivirus tools, and has no relation to two data inputs producing the same cryptographic value.
D. Key escrow is a key management practice where encryption keys are deposited with a trusted third party for recovery purposes, which is unrelated to hash output collisions.

Concept tested. Cryptographic hash collision definition and significance

Reference. https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/collision

Community Discussion

No community discussion yet for this question.

Full 312-50V9 Practice