NISTIR 7298 Revision 1, Glossary of Key Information Security Terms

NIST IR 7298 Revision 1, Glossary of Key Information Security Terms
Guessing Entropy – A measure of the difficulty that an attacker has to guess the average
password used in a system. In this document, entropy is stated in bits.
When a password has n-bits of guessing entropy then an attacker has
as much difficulty guessing the average password as in guessing an
n-bit random quantity. The attacker is assumed to know the actual
password frequency distribution.
SOURCE: SP 800-63
Hacker – Unauthorized user who attempts to or gains access to an information
system.
SOURCE: CNSSI-4009
Handler – A type of program used in DDoS attacks to control agents distributed
throughout a network. Also refers to an incident handler, which
refers to a person who performs incident response work.
SOURCE: SP 800-61
Handshaking Procedures – Dialogue between two information systems for synchronizing,
identifying, and authenticating themselves to one another.
SOURCE: CNSSI-4009
Hard Copy Key – Physical keying material, such as printed key lists, punched or
printed key tapes, or programmable, read-only memories (PROM).
SOURCE: CNSSI-4009
Hardening – Configuring a host’s operating systems and applications to reduce the
host’s security weaknesses.
SOURCE: SP 800-123
Hardware – The physical components of an information system. See software and
firmware.
SOURCE: CNSSI-4009
Hardwired Key – Permanently installed key.
SOURCE: CNSSI-4009
Hash Function – A function that maps a bit string of arbitrary length to a fixed length
bit string. Approved hash functions satisfy the following properties:
1) One-Way. It is computationally infeasible to find any input that
maps to any prespecified output.
2) Collision Resistant. It is computationally infeasible to find any
two distinct inputs that map to the same output.
SOURCE: SP 800-63; FIPS 201
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