A software supply chain uses cryptographic hashes to verify component integrity. Which failure mode becomes likely when a weak hashing algorithm with poor collision resistance is employed?

💡 Explanation

A weak hashing algorithm makes malicious component substitution likely, because its poor collision resistance leads to different components producing the same hash value, therefore malicious replacements are not detected, rather than computational costs, bandwidth, or system access being directly affected.

• If a protein undergoes a conformational change in an enzyme's active site, which consequence follows regarding its binding affinity?
• A digital circuit design, represented as a CNF formula, contains a clause (A ∨ ¬A). If using a SAT solver, which consequence follows?
• Which outcome occurs when a context-free grammar (CFG) is used to define a formal language with inherently ambiguous structures?
• If a computational geometer incrementally constructs a convex hull from a point set using Graham's scan, which outcome occurs when the current point creates a non-left turn?
• When scheduling tasks on a processor core, why does simply summing task durations incorrectly estimate total runtime if some tasks access shared memory resources?
• A distributed sensor network measures temperature and humidity; which outcome suggests temperature and humidity readings from spatially separated sensors are statistically independent?