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Cyber Glossary

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Symmetric Encryption General

The same key is used to encrypt and decrypt (e.g., Caesar, Vigenere)

Asymmetric Encryption General

One key encrypts, a different key decrypts.

Public Key Encryption General

Public key encryption is a type of asymmetric key encryption. There’s one key that encrypts the information and there is a different key that decrypts the information.

Digest General

The output from any input that has been processed through a hashing algorithm / function.

Hash Functions or Hashing General

The word hashing literally means to scramble. Hashing changes a message into an unreadable string of text for the purpose of verifying the message’s contents, but not hiding the message itself. It must be easy to compute the output (the digest) for any input, but hard to compute the input for any output. A hash function takes an input string of arbitrary length and produces a fixed- size, short output called a digest . It’s always the same length no matter how big the input is AND the output is always the same hash for any given input. Unlike symmetric and asymmetric algorithms, there are no “keys” in hashing functions.

Collisions General

whenever 2 inputs map to the same output.

Reverse-engineerable General

whenever you can work backwards through an algorithm (like a Caesar cipher)

Modulo Operation General

Finds the remainder after division of one number by another (sometimes called modulus). Example: 14 ➗ 4 = 3 remainder 2 14 mod 4 = 2 14 % 4 = 2

cryptography General

The science of protecting information by encrypting and transforming it into a secure format.

Symmetric Encryption General

When the same key is used to both encrypt and decrypt.

Asymmetric Encryption General

When one key encrypts and a different key decrypts.

substitution cipher General

Changes one character or symbol into another.

block cipher General

Groups bits into blocks of plaintext before applying the encryption.

transposition cipher General

Shifts the positions of plaintext character (or groups of characters) according to a regular system.

Data Encryption Standard (DES) General

A symmetric, block cipher that groups data into 65-bit blocks and uses a 56-bit key along with an algorithm and 16 rounds of encryption.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) General

A symmetric, block cipher that groups data into 128-bit blocks and uses a 128-, 192- or 256-bit key along with an algorithm and 10, 12, or 14 rounds of encryption.

key exchange General

A method in cryptography by which keys (public or private) are exchanged between two parties.

Diffie-Hellman key exchange General

One of the first asymmetric key implementations and was responsible for securing the exchange of keys.

man-in-the-middle attack General

Occurs when someone secretly intercepts communications between two parties by impersonating one or both parties.

RSA encryption General

The first widely used asymmetric algorithm used for both signing and encryption.

SSL certificate General

A small data file that digitally binds a public cryptographic key to an organization.

single SSL certificate General

Will secure one domain or subdomain.

wildcard SSL certificate General

Will secure one domain and an unlimited number of its subdomains.

multi-domain SSL certificate General

Will secure multiple domains.

root certificate General

Belongs to the Certificate Authority.

intermediate certificate General

Acts as a “middle-man” between the root certificate and the server certificate.

server certificate General

Issued to the domain.

stapling General

Allows a server to validate their own SSL certificate by bundling a time-stamped response signed by the certificate authority.

certificate pinning General

The process of associating a host with their expected certificate or public key.

Cross-site Scripting (XSS) JavaScript

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a security bug that can affect websites. If present in your website, this bug can allow an attacker to add their own malicious JavaScript code onto the HTML pages displayed to your users. Once executed by the victim's browser, this code could then perform actions such as completely changing the behavior or appearance of the website, stealing private data, or performing actions on behalf of the user.

risk assessment General

The process of identifying, assessing and prioritizing potential risks for an organization or company.

vulnerability scan General

Designed and used to assess computers, networks or applications for known weaknesses.

packet sniffing General

The practice of gathering, collecting, and logging some or all packets that pass through a computer network.

race condition General

A situation when a device or system has two or more operations running at the same time that must be completed in proper sequence.

buffer overflow General

A situation when too much data is placed into a fixed-sized buffer that can cause data corruption.

integer overflow General

When a value higher than the maximum or lower than the minimum is used which can result in logic errors.

penetration test General

When a company hires a white hat hacker to assess the security of a system by finding and exploiting vulnerabilities.

passive reconnaissance General

Collecting information about a target without directly accessing the system (social media, news, website, etc).

active reconnaissance General

Collecting information about a target by actively engaging a system and analyzing responses (network and port scans).

initial exploitation General

When the tester is first able to gain access into the target system.

pivot General

Using a compromised trusted system to gain access to a target system within the same network.

escalation of privilege General

Using tools to gain higher levels of privilege.

black box pen test General

When the tester has no knowledge of the target system (simulates an external attack).

white box pen test General

When the tester has intimate knowledge of the target system (simulates an internal attack).

gray box pen test General

When the tester is limited knowledge of the target system.

qualitative risk assessment General

Risk assessment that gives a numerical (typically monetary) value to the impact of a threat occuring.

single loss expectancy (SLE) General

How much money could be lost at any one time which is determined by the formula: AV * EF + SLE

asset value (AV) General

How much an asset is worth.

exposure factor (EF) General

The amount of the asset that would be impacted (amount of time, % of data, etc) by a threat event.

annual loss expectancy General

How much can be expected to be lost in a year due to a single threat event which is determined by the formula: SLE * ARO = ALE

annual rate of occurrence (ARO) General

How often a threat event per year (typically determined by historical data).

qualitative risk assessment General

Risk assessment that defines an event’s level of risk in words rather than numbers which is determined by the potential level of impact and the likelihood of occurrence.

risk avoidance General

Risk response that removes the risk by avoiding the behavior completely.

risk transfer General

Risk response that shares the responsibility of the risk with someone else.

risk acceptance General

Risk response that accepts the risk as is.

risk mitigation General

Risk response that takes steps to avoid the risk or minimize the impact or likelihood.

HTML HTML

Hypertext Markup Language

HTML

HTML Tag HTML

Tags are the building blocks of an HTML document

Tag

Indentation General

Indentation is the visual structure of how your code is laid out. It uses tabs to organize code into a hierarchy.

Metadata General

a set of data that describes and gives information about other data.

Hyperlink HTML

The connection between one HTML page to another HTML page

<img> Tag HTML

Allows adding an image to a web page. It is self-closing. The attributes of an `<img>` tag include `src`, which specifies where to get the image from (the url for an image ), and `width` and `height` attributes, which specify the size of the image in pixels.

HTML Lists HTML

Way to organize information with a simple structure that is easy to read and write on a webpage. There are ordered and unordered HTML lists.

<ul> Tag HTML

Defines an unordered list in HTML.

<li> Tag HTML

defines a list item inside an HMTL list.

HTML Tables HTML

Tables display information in a grid.

Style Attribute HTML

Allows adding several different types of styles to HTML elements.

CSS CSS

Cascading Style Sheets. The language for designing web pages and adding style.

Selector CSS

Defines which HTML elements a CSS rule applies to.

Class Attribute HTML

`class` is an attribute we can add to HTML tags in order to style a specific group of elements.

id Attribute HTML

`id` is an attribute we can add to an HTML tag to style that specific element.

URL General

Stands for Uniform Resource Locator. You are locating a resource that exists somewhere on the internet.

ORDER BY General

A SQL clause that sorts the returned query results by one or more columns

ASC General

Ascending order; the default sort direction

DESC General

Descending order; used to reverse the default sorting

JOIN General

A SQL operation that combines rows from two or more tables based on a related column.

Cross Join General

A join where each row in one table is paired with every row in another.

Foreign Key General

A field in one table that refers to the primary key in another table.

Alias General

A temporary name assigned to a column or table using the `AS` keyword in SQL

AS General

A SQL keyword used to rename fields or tables in the query result