PKI Certificates Definition
Oct 17, 2023
Digital documents can often act as a sort of digital passport that allows you to access websites and services. Within the context of Public Key Infrastructure and PKI-secured conversations, these documents are usually referred to as PKI certificates. A PKI certificate usually includes a certain amount of information such as the public key, which is arguably the most important element of a PKI certificate. In a sense, we can imagine the PKI certificate as the instrument through which the public key is shared and transmitted over the internet. The thing that makes a PKI certificate different from other cryptographic protocols is the fact that in a PKI environment there is a certificate authority (commonly known as CA) that certifies and verifies that the entity presenting the certificate is who they claim to be. Similar to a passport in the physical world, there is an authority that will issue and verify the document so that it can be trusted by everybody.
The main elements that are essential for a digital certificate are:
- An authority designated to issue the PKI certificates. This authority will usually sign the PKI certificate using its public key—which can be verified by anybody.
- An authority to verify the identity of the entities that will be issued the PKI certificate. You can imagine this as the officer taking your fingerprints and taking a picture for your passport. This authority can sometimes be separate from the certificate authority we mentioned earlier.
- A database where all the information about the certificates is easily accessible for the authority so that it is known whether the certificates are valid and for how long.
- A document outlining the policy that is implemented for the specific PKI environment. This policy is important because it allows any third party to evaluate whether the PKI is trustworthy or not.
Glossary Terms
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AAA Cyber Security Definition Access Control List Definition Account Sharing Definition Active Directory Certificate Services Definition Active Directory Federation Services Definition Adaptive Authentication Definition Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) Definition Adware Definition AiTM Definition Altcoins API Definition ARP Cache Poisoning Attack Definition Asymmetric Encryption Definition Attack Surface Analysis Definition Attack Vectors Definition Authentication Authentication Protocols Definition Automated Compliance Definition
Beaconing Definition Behavioral Biometrics Definition Biometric Authentication Definition Bitcoin Blockchain Blockchain Authentication Definition Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Definition Bot Definition Botnet Definition Brute Force Attack Definition BYOD Definition
CA Certs Definition Canary Cyber Security Definition Catfishing Definition Central Logging Definition Certificate Authority Definition Challenge handshake authentication protocol CHAP Authentication Definition CIA Triad Definition Cipher Definition Cipher Suite Definition Ciphertext Definition CIS Click Fraud Definition Cloud Data Security Definition Cloud Security Risks Definition Computer Viruses Definition Continuous Authentication Definition Corporate Account Takeover Definition Credential Stuffing Definition Cross-site Scripting Definition CRUD Definition Crypto Cryptographic Hash Definition Cryptojacking Definition Cyber insurance Cyber Kill Chain Definition Cybersecurity Cybersecurity Analytics Definition Cybersecurity Honeypot Definition Cyberwarfare Definition
Dark Web Definition Data Breach Definition Data Exfiltration Definition Data Integrity Definition Data Obfuscation Ddos Definition Deep Packet Inspection Definition Deep Web vs Dark Web Definition Demilitarized Zone / DMZ Network Definition Denial-of-Service (DoS) Definition DevOps Security Definition Dictionary Attacks Definition DID (Decentralized Identity) Diffie Hellman Algorithm Definition Digest Access Authentication Digital Forensics Definition Digital ID Digital Signature Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) Digital Signature Standard (DSS) Distributed Key DMARC Definition DNS Leak Protection Definition Domain Name Service (DNS) Definition Doxxed Definition DRM Definition
Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) Definition Email Hijacking Definition Encryption Definition Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Definition Endpoint Management Definition Endpoint Security Definition Equifax Security Breach Ethereum Ethernet Switch Definition Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) Method Definition Eye Authentication
Face Authentication Facial Recognition Definition Fake Hacking Definition Fault Tolerance Definition Federated Authentication Definition FIDO Alliance FIDO Biometrics FIDO Client Software SDK FIDO Cloud Authentication FIDO IoT Security FIDO Server FIDO U2F Authentication FIDO UAF Fido2 Definition Fileless Malware Definition Fingerprint Biometrics Definition Firewall Definition Firewall Rule Definition Firmware Definition Forensic Analysis Definition
Golden Ticket Attack Definition Google Authenticator Google Authenticator Definition Google Authenticator Push Notification
Hacking Definition Hacktivism Definition Hash Functions Definition Heap Spraying Definition HOTP Definition How Does a VPN Work Hybrid Cloud Definition Hyperscale Definition
IAM Definition ICMP Definition ID Ransomware Definition ID Ransomware Definition Howard Poston Identity Authentication Definition Identity Governance Identity Proofing Identity Verification Definition Identity-Based Encryption IDP Definition IKE Definition Incident Response Definition Ingress Vs. Egress Definition Insider Threat Definition Intrusion Detection System Definition IoT Edge Definition
Key Agreement vs. Key Exchange Definition Key Distribution Center Definition Key management Keylogging
Latency Definition Lateral Movement Meaning LDAP Definition Log Formats Definition Log Management Definition
Machine Learning Cyber Security Definition Magic Links Definition Malvertising Definition Malware Definition Man in the Middle (MITM) Attack MDM Protocol Definition MDR Definition Meterpreter Definition MFA Push Notification Mimikatz MITC Definition MITRE ATT&CK Framework Definition Mobile Authentication Definition MS-DOS Definition MSSP Meaning Multi-factor Authentication Definition
Network Edge Definition Network Security Definition Node NTLM Authentication NTLM Authentication Definition NTLM Definition
OAuth 2.0 Definition OAuth Definition OCSP Definition On-Path Attack Definition One-Factor Authentication Definition One-Time Password Definition Open banking OpenID Connect Flow Definition OPSEC Definition OTP Definition Out-of-band authentication
PAM Tools Definition Parse Logs Definition Passkeys Password Complexity Password Hashing Password Reuse Password Spraying Definition Passwordless Authentication Penetration Testing Definition Personally identifiable information (PII) PGP Definition Phishing Definition PKI Architecture Definition PKI Authentication Definition PKI Certificates Definition Port Scanning Definition Pretexting Definition Privileged Access Management Definition Protected health information (PHI) Proxy Server Definition PSD1 Definition PSD2 Definition Public Key Encryption Definition Push Authentication
RADIUS Protocol Definition Rainbow Table Random Number Generator Ransomware Red Team Remote Access Trojan Definition REST API Definition REST Protocols Definition Reverse Engineering Risk-Based Authentication Rootkit Definition
Salted Hash Definition SAML Definition SAML Handshake Definition SAML MFA SAML vs OAuth SASE Definition Scareware Definition SCIM Definition SCRAM Definition Security as a Service Security Keys Definition Security Mesh Security Tokens Definition Session Hijacking Definition Shellcode Shoulder Surfing Definition Sidejacking Definition SIEM Definition Single Sign-On Definition Single-Factor Authentication Site-to-Site VPN Smart Card Authentication SOAP Protocol Definition SOAP Secure Definition Social Engineering Software Patch Definition Spam Filter Spambot Spear Phishing Spoofing Definition Spoofing IP Address Spraying Attack Spyeye Definition Spyware SQL Injection SQRL Definition SSH Definition SSL Definition SSL Stripping Attack SSO Definition Stateful Firewall Definition Step-Up Authentication Stuxnet Symmetric Encryption Symmetric Encryption Symmetric Key Symmetric Key Cryptography Symmetric vs Asymmetric Encryption System Logging
Tailgating Attack Thin Client Definition Threat Actor Threat Hunting Threat Intelligence Threat Modeling Ticket-Granting Ticket (TGT) Definition Tiny Banker Trojan Tokenization Definition Tokenized Authentication TOTP Definition Traceroute Definition Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Definition Transparent Proxy Trickbot Trojan horse Trojan Virus Definition Trustless Two-factor authentication
U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) Definition UDP (User Datagram Protocol) UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics) KZero Staff Unified Threat Management (UTM) URL Filtering
WAF Definition WAF vs Firewall WAN Aggregation WannaCry Wardriving Definition Watering Hole Attack Web3 What Is A Key Logger What Is An Exploit What Is Bricking What Is Caching What Is Ctap What Is Fido What is LDAP What Is Sandboxes What Is Snort What Is Soar What Is SSH What Is TGT White Hat Hacking Wi-Fi Snooping Wireless Networks Worm Virus Definition
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