Digital Signature Schemes

Related Concepts

Data Authentication; Entity Authentication; Non Repudiation

Definition

Digital signature schemes are techniques to assure an entity’s acknowledgment of having seen a certain digital message. Typically, an entity has a private key and a corresponding public key that is tied to the entity’s name (Public Keyinfrastructure). The entity generates a string called signature, which depends on the message to sign and his private key.

The fact that the entity acknowledged, that is, that he signed the message, can be verified by anyone using the entity’s public key, the message, and the signature. Data Authentication and signature schemes are sometimes distinguished in the sense that in the latter, verification can be done by anyone at any time after the generation of the signature. Due to this property, the digital signature scheme achieves Non-Repudiation property, that is, a signer cannot later deny the fact of signing.

Some examples of digital signature schemes are RSA...