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Common Security: CDSA and CSSM
Copyright © 1997 The Open Group

Glossary

Asymmetric algorithms

Cryptographic algorithms using one key to encrypt, and a second key to decrypt. They are often called public-key algorithms. One key is called the public key, and the other is called the private key or secret key. RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adelman) is the most commonly used public-key algorithm. It can be used for encryption and for signing.

Cryptographic Service Providers (CSPs)

Modules that provide secure key storage and cryptographic functions. The modules may be software only or hardware with software drivers. The cryptographic functions provided may include:

Certification Authority (CA)

An entity that guarantees or sponsors a certificate. For example, a credit card company signs a cardholder's certificate to assure that the cardholder is who he or she claims to be. The credit card company is a certificate authority. Certificate authorities issue, verify, and revoke certificates.

Certificate

See Digital certificate.

Certificate chain

The hierarchical chain of all the other certificates used to sign the current certificate. This includes the Certificate Authority (CA) who signs the certificate, the CA who signed that CA's certificate, and so on. There is no limit to the depth of the certificate chain.

Certificate signing

The Certificate Authority (CA) can sign certificates it issues or cosign certificates issued by another CA. In a general signing model, an object signs an arbitrary set of one or more objects. Hence, any number of signers can attest to an arbitrary set of objects. The arbitrary objects could be, for example, pieces of a document for libraries of executable code.

Certificate validity date

A start date and a stop date for the validity of the certificate. If a certificate expires, the Certificate Authority (CA) may issue a new certificate.

Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA)

A set of layered security services that address communications and data security problems in the emerging Internet and Intranet application space. The CDSA consists of three basic layers:

Common Security Services Manager (CSSM)

The central layer of the Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) that defines six key service components:

The CSSM binds together all the security services required by PC applications. In particular, it facilitates linking digital certificates to cryptographic actions and trust protocols.

Cryptographic algorithm

A method or defined mathematical process for implementing a cryptography operation. A cryptographic algorithm may specify the procedure for encrypting and decrypting a byte stream, digitally signing an object, computing the hash of an object, generating a random number.

Cryptoki

The name of the PKCS#11 version 1.0 standard published by RSA Laboratories. The standard specifies the interface for accessing cryptographic services performed by a removable device. For additional information see http://www.rsa.com.

Digital certificate

The binding of some identification to a public key in a particular domain, as attested to directly or indirectly by the digital signature of the owner of that domain. A digital certificate is an unforgeable credential in cyberspace. The certificate is issued by a trusted authority, covered by that party's digital signature. The certificate may attest to the certificate holder's identity, or may authorize certain actions by the certificate holder. A certificate may include multiple signatures and may attest to multiple objects or multiple actions.

Digital signature

A data block that was created by applying a cryptographic signing algorithm to some other data using a secret key. Digital signatures may be used to:

Typical digital signing algorithms include MD5 with RSA encryption, and DSS, the Digital Signature Standard defined by NIST FIPS Pub 186.

Hash algorithm

A cryptographic algorithm used to compress a variable-size input stream into a unique, fixed-size output value. The function is one-way, meaning the input value cannot be derived from the output value. A cryptographically strong hash algorithm is collision-free, meaning unique input values produce unique output values. Hashing is typically used in digital signing algorithms. Example hash algorithms include MD and MD2 from RSA Data Security. MD5, also from RSA Data Security, hashes a variable-size input stream into a 128-bit output value. SHA, a Secure Hash Algorithm published by the U.S. Government, produces a 160-bit hash value from a variable-size input stream.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. It is a generic, stateless, object-oriented protocol which is widely used for data transfer over the Internet. More information about HTTP is available at http://www.w3.org/Protocols/ and at http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/.

JAVA

JAVA is an object-oriented language for development of platform-independent applications. JAVA runtime defines a sandbox paradigm to provide a secure JAVA execution environment. Additional information can be found at http://www.javasoft.com.

Leaf Certificate

The certificate in a certificate chain that has not been used to sign another certificate in that chain. The leaf certificate is signed directly or transitively by all other certificates in the chain.

Meta-information

Descriptive information specified by an add-in service module and stored in the CSSM registry. This information advertises the add-in modules services. CSSM supports application queries for this information. The information my change at runtime.

Message digest

The digital fingerprint of an input stream. A cryptographic hash function is applied to an input message arbitrary length and returns a fixed-size output, which is called the digest value.

Nonce

A non-repeating value, usually but not necessarily random.

Owned certificate

A certificate whose associated private key resides in a local CSP. Digital signature algorithms require the private key when signing data. A system may supply certificates it owns along with signed data to enable other to verify the signature. A system uses certificates that it does not own to verify signatures created by others.

PolicyMaker

PolicyMaker is a language for evaluating trust policy expressions. Additional information can be found at:

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

PGP is a widely available software package providing data encryption and decryption using the IDEA cryptographic algorithms. To date,PGP facilities have been applied to securing data files and electronic mail communications. Additional information can be found at http://www.pgp.com

Private key

The cryptographic key used to decipher or sign messages in public-key cryptography. This key is kept secret by its owner.

Public key

The cryptographic key used to encrypt messages in public-key cryptography. The public key is available to multiple users (for example, the public).

Random number generators

A function that generates cryptographically strong random numbers that cannot be easily guessed by an attacker. Random numbers are often used to generate session keys.

Root certificate

The prime certificate, such as the official certificate of a corporation or government entity. The root certificate is positioned at the top of the certificate hierarchy in its domain, and it guarantees the other certificates in its certificate chain. The root certificate's public key is the foundation of signature verification in its domain.

Secret key

A cryptographic key used with symmetric algorithms, usually to provide confidentiality.

Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)

A specification designed to utilize technology for authenticating the parties involved in payment card purchases on any type of online network, including the Internet. SET focuses on maintaining confidentiality of information, ensuring message integrity, and authenticating the parties involved in a transaction. More information about SET is available at:

Secure MIME (S/MIME)

MIME is a mechanism for specifying and describing the format of Internet message bodies also known as attachments to electronic mail. S/MIME provides a method to send and receive secure MIME messages. In order to validate the keys of a message sent to it, an S/MIME agent needs to certify that the encryption key is valid. Additional information can be found at:

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

SSL (also known as Above Transport Layer Security (TLS)) is a security protocol that prevents eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery over the Internet. An SSL service negotiates a secure session between two communicating endpoints. Basic facilities include certificate-based authentication, end-to-end data integrity and optional data privacy. 
Additional information can be found at
http://search.netscape.com/newsref/std/SSL.html
and
http://search.netscape.com/newsref/ssl/3-SPEC.html.
SSL has been submitted to the IETF as an Internet Draft for Transport Layer Security (TLS). More information about TLS can be found at ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-tls-protocol-03.txt.

Security Context

A control structure that retains state information shared between a cryptographic service provider and the application agent requesting service from the CSP. Only one context can be active for an application at any given time, but the application is free to switch among contexts at will, or as required. A security context specifies CSP and application-specific values, such as required key length and desired hash functions.

Security-relevant event

An event where a CSP-provided function is performed, an add-in security module is loaded, or a breach of system security is detected.

Session key

A cryptographic key used to encrypt and decrypt data. The key is shared by two or more communicating parties, who use the key to ensure privacy of the exchanged data.

Signature

See Digital signature.

Signature chain

The hierarchical chain of signers, from the root certificate to the leaf certificate, in a certificate chain.

Symmetric algorithms

Cryptographic algorithms that use a single secret key for encryption and decryption. Both the sender and receiver must know the secret key. Well-known symmetric functions include DES (Data Encryption Standard) and IDEA. DES was endorsed by the U.S. Government as a standard in 1977. It's an encryption block cipher that operates on 64-bit blocks with a 56-bit key. It is designed to be implemented in hardware, and works well for bulk encryption. IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm) uses a 128-bit key.

Token

The logical view of a cryptographic device, as defined by a CSP's interface. A token can be hardware, a physical object, or software. A token contains information about its owner in digital form, and about the services it provides for electronic-commerce and other communication applications. A token is a secure device. It may provide a limited or a broad range of cryptographic functions.

Examples of hardware tokens are SmartCards and PMCIA cards.

Verification

The process of comparing two message digests. One message digest is generated by the message sender and included in the message. The message recipient computes the digest again. If the message digests are exactly the same, it shows or proves there was no tampering of the message contents by a third party (between the sender and the receiver). A process performed to check the integrity of a message, to determine the sender of a message, or both. Different algorithms are used to support different modes of verification. A typical procedure supporting integrity verification is the combination of a one-way hash function and a reversible digital signaturing algorithm. A one-way hash of the message is computed. The hash value is signed by encrypting it with a private key. The message and the encrypted hash value are sent to a receiver. The recipient recomputes the one-way hash, decrypts the signed hash value, and compares it with the computed hash. If the values match then the message has not been message has not been tampered since it was signed. The identity of a sender can be verified by a challenge-response protocol. The recipient sends the message sender a random challenge value. The original sender uses its private key to sign the challenge value and returns the result to the receiver. The receiver uses the corresponding public key to verify the signature over the challenge value. If the signature verifies the sender is the holder of the private key. If the receiver can reliably associate the corresponding public key with the named/known entity, then the identity of the sender is said to have been verified.

Web of trust

A trust network among people who know and communicate with each other. Digital certificates are used to represent entities in the web of trust. Any pair of entities can determine the extent of trust between the two, based on their relationship in the web.
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