api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: json
dataset:
  slug: cryptography-basics
  title: Cryptography Basics
  description: Fundamental cryptographic concepts.
  summary: "The core concepts of applied cryptography: symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hashes, signatures, PKI and cipher types, with the supporting ideas of nonces, salts, key derivation, forward secrecy and authenticated encryption that decide whether those primitives are used safely."
  use_when:
    - You need a precise one-line definition of a cryptographic term.
    - You are checking whether a design uses salts, nonces and key derivation correctly.
  caveats:
    - Definitions here are conceptual. Secure use depends on correct implementation, parameter choice and key management.
    - Terms are sometimes used loosely in practice (for example 'encryption' for hashing); the entries use the strict meaning.
  related:
    - cryptographic-algorithms
    - authentication-factors
    - network-security-devices
  category: Cybersecurity
  category_slug: cybersecurity
  tags: security,cryptography,encryption
  view_count: 0
  entry_count: 16
  fields:
    - section: data
      field: term
      type: string
      example: Symmetric Encryption
    - section: data
      field: description
      type: string
      example: Same key is used for encryption and decryption.
data:
  - term: Symmetric Encryption
    description: Same key is used for encryption and decryption.
  - term: Asymmetric Encryption
    description: Public and private key pair used for encryption and signing.
  - term: Hash Function
    description: One-way function producing a fixed-size digest.
  - term: Digital Signature
    description: Uses a private key to sign and a public key to verify.
  - term: Public Key Infrastructure
    description: Framework for managing public-key certificates.
  - term: Block Cipher
    description: Encrypts fixed-length blocks of plaintext.
  - term: Stream Cipher
    description: Encrypts data one bit or byte at a time.
  - term: Nonce / IV
    description: A value used once per encryption under a key so that identical plaintexts produce different ciphertexts; reusing it can be catastrophic.
  - term: Salt
    description: A random per-item value mixed into a password hash so identical passwords hash differently and precomputed tables fail.
  - term: Key Derivation Function
    description: A function that derives one or more keys from a secret or password, often deliberately slow for passwords.
  - term: Perfect Forward Secrecy
    description: A property where compromise of long-term keys does not reveal past session keys, achieved with ephemeral key exchange.
  - term: Authenticated Encryption (AEAD)
    description: Encryption that also proves the ciphertext and associated data have not been altered.
  - term: Certificate Authority
    description: A trusted party that signs certificates binding a public key to an identity.
  - term: Entropy
    description: A measure of unpredictability. Keys and tokens must come from a cryptographically secure random source.
  - term: Kerckhoffs's Principle
    description: A system should remain secure even if everything except the key is public.
  - term: Collision Resistance
    description: The property that it is computationally infeasible to find two different inputs with the same hash.