DSA Class
Represents the abstract base class from which all implementations of the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) must inherit.
For a list of all members of this type, see DSA Members.
System.Object
System.Security.Cryptography.AsymmetricAlgorithm
System.Security.Cryptography.DSA
System.Security.Cryptography.DSACryptoServiceProvider
[Visual Basic] MustInherit Public Class DSA Inherits AsymmetricAlgorithm [C#] public abstract class DSA : AsymmetricAlgorithm [C++] public __gc __abstract class DSA : public AsymmetricAlgorithm [JScript] public abstract class DSA extends AsymmetricAlgorithm
Thread Safety
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.
Remarks
Digital signatures are used to help authenticate the identity of another entity and to help protect the integrity of data. For example, to use a public-key system to digitally sign a message, the sender first applies a hash function to the message to create a message digest. The sender then encrypts the message digest with the sender's private key to create the sender's personal signature, because this private key uniquely identifies the sender. Upon receiving the message and signature, the receiver decrypts the signature using the sender's public key to recover the message digest and hashes the message using the same hash algorithm that the sender used. If the message digest that the receiver computes exactly matches the message digest received from the sender, the receiver can assume that the message came from the sender. Note that a signature can be verified by anyone, because the sender's public key is common knowledge.
Requirements
Namespace: System.Security.Cryptography
Platforms: Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003 family
Assembly: Mscorlib (in Mscorlib.dll)
See Also
DSA Members | System.Security.Cryptography Namespace | Cryptographic Services