A system developer has a requirement for an application to check for a secure digital signature before the application is accessed on a user's laptop. Which security mechanism addresses this requireme

Hardware encryption protects data confidentiality by encrypting stored data at rest, but does not provide a mechanism to verify or validate digital signatures on applications before execution.

A Certificate Revocation List (CRL) policy is used to check whether a digital certificate has been revoked, not to enforce digital signature verification as a prerequisite for application access on a local device.

A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a dedicated hardware chip embedded in a device that stores cryptographic keys and performs secure digital signature verification. TPM enables platform integrity checks by measuring and validating software components before they are executed, ensuring only trusted, signed applications are allowed to run. This satisfies the requirement of checking for a secure digital signature before application access.

Key exchange is a cryptographic process used to securely share encryption keys between parties during communication sessions, and is unrelated to verifying application digital signatures before local execution.