12 Security terms and concepts

Security features

Security terms

CA (Certificate Authority)

A CA is an entity that issues digital certificates (especially X.509 certificates) and vouches for the binding between the data items in a certificate.

CSR (Certificate Signing Request)

A CSR is a message sent from an applicant to a CA in order to apply for issue of a certificate. The CSR contains information identifying the applicant, the public key generated by the applicant and the digital signature of the applicant.

Certificate

A Certificate is the information that binds together a public key with an identity. The certificate can be used to verify that a public key belongs to an individual. The format is defined by the x.509 standard.

CA Certificate

A CA Certificate is the certification that identifies the CA (Certificate Authority) itself and owns its private key. It verifies a certificate issued by the CA.

Digital signature

A Digital signature is a value computed with a cryptographic algorithm and appended to a data object in such a way that any recipient of the data can use the signature to verify the data's origin and integrity.

Public key cryptosystem

A Public key cryptosystem is a modern branch of cryptography in which the algorithms employ a pair of

keys (a public key and a private key) and use a different component of the pair for different steps of the 12 algorithm.

Shared key cryptosystem

A Shared key cryptosystem is a branch of cryptography involving algorithms that use the same key for two different steps of the algorithm (such as encryption and decryption).

103