ISC2 CISSP Practice Question

The correct answer is **code signing verification. **Code signing uses digital signatures to verify the authenticity and integrity of software components. By verifying these signatures before execution, the system can detect if a component has been modified after it was signed by its legitimate author, protecting against unauthorized modifications and tampering.

Runtime application self-protection (RASP) monitoring focuses on detecting and blocking attacks during application execution by analyzing behavior and context. While RASP might detect exploitation of vulnerabilities, it's not specifically designed to detect unauthorized modifications to the components themselves, particularly those that don't trigger behavioral anomalies.

Binary analysis with automated hash comparison involves checking file hashes against expected values to identify changes. While this approach can detect modifications, it requires maintaining a trusted repository of original hashes and doesn't inherently verify the source authenticity of the components like code signing does. Additionally, legitimate updates would trigger false positives unless the hash repository is continuously updated.

Software composition analysis with continuous version verification focuses on identifying and tracking the versions of components used in applications. While this helps manage known vulnerabilities in specific versions, it doesn't directly detect unauthorized modifications to those components. It assumes the integrity of the component repositories and the version identification process.