CAS-003 · Question #358
A security architect is designing a system to satisfy user demand for reduced transaction time, increased security and message integrity, and improved cryptographic security. The resultant system…
The correct answer is A. An internal key infrastructure that allows users to digitally sign transaction logs. A PKI-based digital signature system satisfies all requirements by providing fast, cryptographically verifiable message integrity without the latency of proof-of-work consensus.
Question
A security architect is designing a system to satisfy user demand for reduced transaction time, increased security and message integrity, and improved cryptographic security. The resultant system will be used in an environment with a broad user base where many asynchronous transactions occur every minute and must be publicly verifiable. Which of the following solutions BEST meets all of the architect's objectives?
Options
- AAn internal key infrastructure that allows users to digitally sign transaction logs
- BAn agreement with an entropy-as-a-service provider to increase the amount of randomness in
- CA publicly verified hashing algorithm that allows revalidation of message integrity at a future date.
- DAn open distributed transaction ledger that requires proof of work to append entries.
How the community answered
(68 responses)- A50% (34)
- B28% (19)
- C16% (11)
- D6% (4)
Why each option
A PKI-based digital signature system satisfies all requirements by providing fast, cryptographically verifiable message integrity without the latency of proof-of-work consensus.
A public key infrastructure enables asymmetric digital signatures that bind each transaction to a verifiable identity, providing authentication, non-repudiation, and message integrity. Signatures can be validated by any party with access to the public key, satisfying the public verifiability requirement. Unlike proof-of-work systems, signature verification is computationally lightweight, supporting reduced transaction times across a broad, high-volume user base.
Entropy-as-a-service improves key generation randomness but does not provide message integrity, authentication, or public transaction verifiability.
A hashing algorithm alone cannot authenticate identity or provide non-repudiation because any party can compute an identical hash for the same data without a secret credential.
Proof-of-work distributed ledgers directly contradict the reduced-transaction-time requirement because the mandatory computational effort to append each entry introduces significant processing latency.
Concept tested: PKI digital signatures for transaction integrity and verifiability
Source: https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-89/final
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