ITPEC IP April 2026 Question 21
Which of the following is a technology that is also used in measures against tampering of software in IoT devices and verifies the digital signature of the OS, firmware, or other such software when it is started, and only executes the software if the verification is successful?
Explanation
Secure boot — at start-up each piece of software is run only after its digital signature has been verified.
When the device powers on, a trusted component held in protected memory checks the digital signature of the next stage (boot loader, firmware, OS) with the vendor's public key. If the signature verifies, that stage is run and checks the next one in turn, forming a chain of trust. If someone has altered the software, the signature no longer matches and the device refuses to run it. This is why it is used against tampering with IoT devices, which are often left unattended.
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) GPU — a processor specialised in image processing and parallel computation; it checks nothing at start-up
- •(b) RAID — combines several disks into one unit for speed or redundancy against disk failure
- •(d) Reboot — simply restarts the device; it loads whatever software is installed, tampered or not
Key rule: A digital signature proves integrity and origin; secure boot applies that check to every stage of start-up, so tampered software never gets control.
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