
Chapter 7
Digital signatures
As mentioned in Chapter 1, along with encryption of messages and other data ,
digital signatures are fundamental to much modern security. This chapter
introduces:
• The basic requirements of a digital signatur e .
• Digital signature schemes based on the RSA, Rabin and El Gamal cr yp-
tosystems.
• The Digital Signature Standard.
• Security issues with the above schemes.
7.1 Introduction
Digital signatures are one of the most important and practical uses of
modern cryptography. So much so, that digital signature s have been described
as the “killer app” of cryptography. As well as the obvious application of
signing doc uments, ...