A security auditor is examining the non-repudiation controls for a document management system. Users sign documents using their private keys. Which additional control is essential to prevent a user from later claiming they did not sign a document?

Storing the user's private key in a hardware security module (HSM)

Requiring the user to enter a password before signing

Maintaining an audit trail that records the signing event, including timestamp and document hash

Encrypting the document with the user's public key after signing

A software development team is building an API that receives configuration updates from a trusted management server. They need to ensure that the updates have not been tampered with during transmission and that they originate from the management server. Which mechanism should they implement?

Include an HMAC computed with a pre-shared key over the payload.

Encrypt the payload with AES using a shared secret key.

Append a SHA-256 hash of the payload to each message.

Use a digital signature with the management server's public key.

What type of information is typically recorded in an audit trail for cryptographic operations?

The user, timestamp, and type of cryptographic operation performed

The private keys used in the operations

The plaintext of all encrypted messages

A compliance officer requires that all digital signatures be verifiable for at least 10 years. The organization currently uses RSA-2048 with SHA-256. Which action is most important to ensure long-term verifiability?

Encrypt the signed documents with AES-256.

Use a longer RSA key, such as RSA-4096.

Store the signed documents and signatures in a secure archive with a trusted timestamp.

Require users to re-sign documents every year.

Systems Security Certified Practitioner

Domain 5Objective 2

5.2 - Apply Cryptography Concepts SSCP Practice Questions (Page 1)

Part of the Cryptography domain, which accounts for 9% of the SSCP exam. ISC2 does not publish an official question count, but from its 120-minute exam (~50–80 total, ~5–7 in this domain), expect 1–2 from this objective — we provide 25 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

25questions here

5free pages

11concepts

9%of the exam

Questions 1–5

1application · medium
A security auditor is examining the non-repudiation controls for a document management system. Users sign documents using their private keys. Which additional control is essential to prevent a user from later claiming they did not sign a document?
Select an answer first
2application · medium
A software development team is building an API that receives configuration updates from a trusted management server. They need to ensure that the updates have not been tampered with during transmission and that they originate from the management server. Which mechanism should they implement?
Select an answer first
3foundation · easy
What type of information is typically recorded in an audit trail for cryptographic operations?
Select an answer first
4foundation · easy
Which property of a cryptographic hash function ensures that it is computationally infeasible to find any two different inputs that produce the same output?
Select an answer first
5expert · hard
A compliance officer requires that all digital signatures be verifiable for at least 10 years. The organization currently uses RSA-2048 with SHA-256. Which action is most important to ensure long-term verifiability?
Select an answer first

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