In order to provide integrity and authenticity for the Descriptor’s content, a Descriptor contains one or more digital signatures.

Digital signatures do not prevent the data of the Descriptor from being changed. However, engineering tools using the Descriptor can detect whether the content has been altered and notify the user.

It is required that a Descriptor contains at least one digital signature for the whole content. The last editor of the Descriptor usually creates this signature. This can be useful if part of the content is provided by another party or the creator of the Descriptor is different from the user that applies a change to it.

Digital signatures are also present in embedded Descriptors.

The digital signature as it resides inside a Descriptor is detailed in Figure 8.

Figure 8 – An example of a digital signature inside a Descriptor