Question

Differentiate between Digital Signature and Digital Certificate?

Answer 1

A Digital Certificate is an electronic document, certifying the “public key” of an entity (it could be a human user or a machine). It also contains the digital signature of the Certifier (as it could be in any certificate). Typically the certifier is a trusted third party, who is widely accepted. It is essential for non-repudiation.

A Digital Signature is a digital code derived using the “private key” of an entity and the contents of an electronic document. Therefore it is unique to that user and that document.

A digitally signed document is verified using the “public key” of the signer (or the signing entity). Therefore in order to trust a digitally signed document, the public key needs to be certified by a trusted third party - generally referred as Certifying Authorit

Answer 2

A digital signature is a mechanism that is used to verify that a particular digitaldocument or
a message is authentic whereas A digital certificate is a certificateissued by a trusted third party called a Certificate Authority (CA) to verify the identity of the certificate holder.