CCP Cryptography & Information Security 2

Question 1

In Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), what is the role of a Certificate Authority (CA)?

Accepted Answer

To issue and sign digital certificates that bind public keys to identities

Answer

To generate private keys for end users

Answer

To encrypt all network traffic between parties

Answer

To store private keys in a secure hardware module

Question 2

Which algorithm is the foundation of RSA encryption's security?

Accepted Answer

The difficulty of factoring large prime numbers

Answer

The difficulty of solving discrete logarithm problems

Answer

The difficulty of reversing SHA-256 hashes

Answer

The difficulty of breaking elliptic curve equations

Question 3

What does the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol accomplish?

Accepted Answer

It allows two parties to establish a shared secret over an insecure channel without prior contact

Answer

It encrypts data using a shared symmetric key

Answer

It authenticates users via digital certificates

Answer

It generates random keys for block cipher algorithms

Question 4

What is the purpose of a Message Authentication Code (MAC)?

Accepted Answer

To verify both the integrity and authenticity of a message using a shared secret key

Answer

To encrypt a message so only the recipient can read it

Answer

To compress a message before secure transmission

Answer

To establish a session key between communicating parties

Question 5

In SSL/TLS, what does the handshake process primarily accomplish?

Accepted Answer

It negotiates cipher suites and establishes session keys for secure communication

Answer

It compresses the data for faster transmission

Answer

It verifies that the data payload contains no malware

Answer

It fragments large packets into smaller transmission units

Question 6

What is key escrow in cryptography?

Accepted Answer

A system where encryption keys are held by a trusted third party for authorized recovery

Answer

A technique for generating keys from passwords using PBKDF2

Answer

A method to split a key into multiple shares requiring cooperation to reconstruct

Answer

An algorithm for securely distributing symmetric keys over public networks

Question 7

Which asymmetric key operation is used to create a digital signature?

Accepted Answer

Encrypting a hash of the message with the sender's private key

Answer

Encrypting the message with the sender's public key

Answer

Decrypting the message with the recipient's public key

Answer

Hashing the message with the recipient's private key