A company wants to ensure that a configuration file has not been altered during transmission over an untrusted network. The file is not secret, but its integrity must be verifiable by anyone who receives it. Which approach should be used?

Append a CRC32 checksum to the file.

Publish a SHA-256 hash of the file on a separate trusted channel.

Use HMAC with a shared secret that is included in the file.

Encrypt the file with AES and send the key along with the file.

A developer needs to authenticate messages between two servers using a shared secret. The requirement is to use a keyed hash that is resistant to length-extension attacks. Which construction should the developer use?

MD5 of the message with the secret prepended

SHA-1 of the secret and message without keying

Plain SHA-256 of the message concatenated with the secret

EC-CouncilCertified Encryption Specialist

Domain 2Objective 3

Hashing Algorithms (MD5, SHA, RIPEMD, Tiger, Whirlpool) and HMAC ECES Practice Questions (Page 2)

Part of the Symmetric Cryptography and Hashing domain, which makes up ~17% of our current practice bank. EC-Council does not publish an official question count, but from its 120-minute exam (~50–80 total, ~9–14 in this domain), expect 3–5 from this objective — we provide 41 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

41questions here

9free pages

9concepts

Questions 6–10

6foundation · easy
When choosing a hash algorithm for a new system, which of the following is the most appropriate choice today?
Select an answer first
7application · medium
A company wants to ensure that a configuration file has not been altered during transmission over an untrusted network. The file is not secret, but its integrity must be verifiable by anyone who receives it. Which approach should be used?
Select an answer first
8application · medium
A developer needs to authenticate messages between two servers using a shared secret. The requirement is to use a keyed hash that is resistant to length-extension attacks. Which construction should the developer use?
Select an answer first
9expert · hard
A government agency requires a hash function for digital signatures that is not a NIST standard and has a 160-bit output. The agency also wants to avoid algorithms with known collision attacks. Which algorithm should be selected?
Select an answer first
10application · medium
A performance engineer is optimizing a file-integrity checker that runs on 64-bit servers. The tool currently uses SHA-256, but the engineer wants a faster hash that still provides a 192-bit output and is designed for 64-bit efficiency. Which algorithm should the engineer select?
Select an answer first

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Hashing Algorithms (MD5, SHA, RIPEMD, Tiger, Whirlpool) and HMAC ECES Practice Questions (Page 2)

Questions 6–10

When choosing a hash algorithm for a new system, which of the following is the most appropriate choice today?

A company wants to ensure that a configuration file has not been altered during transmission over an untrusted network. The file is not secret, but its integrity must be verifiable by anyone who receives it. Which approach should be used?

A developer needs to authenticate messages between two servers using a shared secret. The requirement is to use a keyed hash that is resistant to length-extension attacks. Which construction should the developer use?

A government agency requires a hash function for digital signatures that is not a NIST standard and has a 160-bit output. The agency also wants to avoid algorithms with known collision attacks. Which algorithm should be selected?

A performance engineer is optimizing a file-integrity checker that runs on 64-bit servers. The tool currently uses SHA-256, but the engineer wants a faster hash that still provides a 192-bit output and is designed for 64-bit efficiency. Which algorithm should the engineer select?

Keep studying — Symmetric Cryptography and Hashing