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Digital signature

This article is about a cryptographic construct derived from a mathematical scheme which is hard to forge. For a data record not secured by cryptographic scheme, see Electronic signature.
Alice signs a message—"Hello Bob!"—by appending a signature which is computed from the message and her private key. Bob receives the message, including the signature, and using Alice's public key, verifies the authenticity of the signed message.
Alice signs a message—"Hello Bob!"—by appending a signature which is computed from the message and her private key. Bob receives both the message and signature. He uses Alice's public key to verify the authenticity of the signed message.

A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature on a message gives a recipient confidence that the message came from a sender known to the recipient.[1][2]

Digital signatures are a type of public-key cryptography, and are commonly used for software distribution,[3][4][5] financial transactions,[citation needed] contract management software,[citation needed] and in other cases where it is important to detect forgery or tampering.

A digital signature on a message or document is similar to a handwritten signature on paper, but it is not restricted to a physical medium like paper—any bitstring can be digitally signed—and while a handwritten signature on paper could be copied onto other paper in a forgery, a digital signature on a message is mathematically bound to the content of the message so that it is infeasible for anyone to forge a valid digital signature on any other message.[6]

Digital signatures are often used to implement electronic signatures, which include any electronic data that carries the intent of a signature,[7] but not all electronic signatures use digital signatures.[8][9]

  1. ^ Bellare, Mihir; Goldwasser, Shafi (July 2008). "Chapter 10: Digital signatures". Lecture Notes on Cryptography (PDF). p. 168. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-04-20. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  2. ^ Katz, Jonathan; Lindell, Yehuda (2007). "Chapter 12: Digital Signature Schemes". Introduction to Modern Cryptography. p. 399.
  3. ^ Boneh, Dan; Shoup, Victor (January 2023). "13. Digital Signatures". A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography (PDF) (Version 0.6 ed.).
  4. ^ "§ 7.5. Package signing in Debian". Securing Debian Manual. Debian Project. Archived from the original on 2025-06-11. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  5. ^ "Distributing your app to registered devices". Apple Developer Documentation. Apple, Inc. Archived from the original on 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2025-07-17.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference stinson3e2006digsigs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "US ESIGN Act of 2000" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2006-05-10.
  8. ^ State of WI Archived 2006-09-25 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ National Archives of Australia Archived November 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
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