The use of encryption to ensure the integrity of reusable software components

Several efforts are currently underway to foster a marketplace for reusable software components based upon interoperating electronic libraries containing managed collections of components. In such a marketplace, it is necessary for potential users to be able to verify the origin of candidate components and to assure that they have not been modified by third parties. This paper proposes a method for providing the assurance through the application of modern encryption techniques.<
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