How deeply does Software Security for Developers cover signature algorithm?

Defines the verification role and shows OpenSSL checks, but defers mathematical and protocol internals.

Signature algorithm

As explained in Software Security for Developers

A signature algorithm is a cryptographic algorithm that generates or verifies digital signatures.

A signature algorithm generates or verifies digital signatures. In an X.509 certificate, its Signature Algorithm field identifies how the certificate was signed and what verification should expect. Digital signatures act like security seals: corruption or tampering makes the signature no longer match. section 8.2.1

Verifying a certificate

A github.com certificate identifies ECDSA with SHA-384 as its signature algorithm. OpenSSL can verify the certificate, but verification may fail with “unable to get local issuer certificate” when the issuer chain is unavailable. Supplying the relevant certificate chain can produce an OK result. section 8.2.1

Listing 8.6 Signature section of github.com X.509 certificate on March 5, 2023

Certificate:
  Data: 
    [Remvoved for brevity]
  Signature Algorithm: ecdsa-with-SHA384   #1
  Signature Value:   #2
    30:64:02:30:04:dc:0d:d4:de:34:99:0a:9c:1f:a8:e1:c1:76:
    5c:62:f4:04:a0:29:35:3e:c2:0d:2a:c3:71:6a:b5:f4:37:d4:
    ec:0b:60:57:71:87:43:25:36:4f:c7:c2:48:d1:49:68:02:30:
    56:d0:bc:c9:17:10:fb:cd:be:fe:2d:df:42:ba:c6:da:46:db:
    aa:a6:67:ee:8e:88:84:81:20:85:cc:96:35:a7:b2:26:11:d6:
    0c:99:9d:3c:c8:83:70:10:4b:0e:15:9b

Inspect the certificate’s Signature Algorithm and Signature Value fields to connect the named algorithm with the data used during verification. section 8.2.1

How Software Security for Developers covers it

Cover of Software Security for Developers

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Also explained in

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Secure APIsA signing algorithm is a cryptographic algorithm that generates or verifies signatures on digital data.

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Related concepts

digital signatureproduces · A digital signature is cryptographic data generated with a private key and verified with corresponding public information to authenticate data or its signer and detect alteration.
rsa-pssincludes · RSA-PSS is a probabilistic RSA digital-signature scheme using the probabilistic signature scheme encoding specified by PKCS #1.
RS256includes · RS256 is a digital signature algorithm that uses RSA's RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 scheme with SHA-256.
ECDSAincludes · ECDSA is a public-key digital signature algorithm that uses elliptic-curve arithmetic to generate and verify signatures.
symmetric signing algorithmcontrasts with · A symmetric signing algorithm uses the same shared secret key to generate and verify a message authentication code or signature.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Software Security for Developers. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.