Which process allows enterprise security personnel to determine if a change to the baseline has been made?

• A. Hash Function
• B. Privacy
• C. Attestation (Authentication)
• D. Identity Proofing

Answer: (C)

Attestation is the process of proving to a verifier that a system is in a known, trusted state by presenting measurements of its current configuration. The baseline represents that approved state, and the system collects measurements of critical components (files, software versions, configurations) and reports them in a tamper-evident way—often using hardware-backed mechanisms like a TPM. The verifier compares those measurements to the baseline; a match indicates no change, while any discrepancy shows that the baseline has been altered and action is needed. Hashing can be part of the measurement step, producing a value to compare, but on its own it doesn’t provide the full, verifiable state proof to a remote verifier. Privacy and identity proofing aren’t about confirming system state against a baseline.