Part 1: General - Computer Security Resource Center - National ...

March, 2007
Secret key A cryptographic key that is used with a secret key (symmetric)
cryptographic algorithm that is uniquely associated with one or more
entities and is not made public. The use of the term “secret” in this
context does not imply a classification level, but rather implies the
need to protect the key from disclosure.
Secure communication
protocol
A communication protocol that provides the appropriate
confidentiality, authentication and content integrity protection.
Security domain A system or subsystem that is under the authority of a single trusted
authority. Security domains may be organized (e.g., hierarchically) to
form larger domains.
Security life of data The time period during which data has security value.
Security services Mechanisms used to provide confidentiality, data integrity,
authentication or non-repudiation of information.
Security strength
(Also “bits of
security”)
A number associated with the amount of work (that is, the number of
operations) that is required to break a cryptographic algorithm or
system. In this Recommendation, security strength is specified in bits
and is a specific value from the set {80, 112, 128, 192, 256}
Self-signed certificate A public key certificate whose digital signature may be verified by the
public key contained within the certificate. The signature on a selfsigned
certificate protects the integrity of the data, but does not
guarantee authenticity of the information. The trust of self-signed
certificates is based on the secure procedures used to distribute them.
Shall This term is used to indicate a requirement of a Federal Information
processing Standard (FIPS) or a requirement that must be fulfilled to
claim conformance to this recommendation. Note that shall may be
coupled with not to become shall not.
Shared secret A secret value that has been computed using a key agreement scheme
and is used as input to a key derivation function.
Should This term is used to indicate a very important requirement. While the
“requirement” is not stated in a FIPS, ignoring the requirement could
result in undesirable results. Note that should may be coupled with not
to become should not.
Signature generation Uses a digital signature algorithm and a private key to generate a
digital signature on data.
Signature verification Uses a digital signature algorithm and a public key to verify a digital
signature.
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