◄ Wiki / Crypto
to-be-signed (TBS) bytes
The exact bytes of a certificate that a digital signature actually covers.
A certificate contains data plus a signature over that data. The to-be-signed bytes are the precise, verbatim portion the signature was computed over — you must hash exactly those bytes to check the signature. Capturing them exactly as they appear, without re-encoding, is essential, because even a one-byte difference makes verification fail.
See also
- test vectorsOfficial known input-and-expected-output pairs used to prove a crypto implementation is correct.
- timing leak / side channelWhen how long an operation takes secretly reveals the private data it worked on.
- TLS 1.3The current, streamlined version of the TLS encryption protocol.