Cryptographic Concepts & Key Terms Study Sheet

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What is PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)?

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A framework that manages digital keys and certificates for secure communication and authentication.

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What is a Public Key?

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A cryptographic key that is openly shared and used to encrypt data in asymmetric encryption.

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What is a Private Key?

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A cryptographic key that is kept secret and used to decrypt data encrypted with the corresponding public key.

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What is Key Escrow?

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A security mechanism where a trusted third party holds a copy of a user's private key for recovery or legal access.

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What is a Certificate Authority (CA)?

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An entity that issues and vouches for digital certificates to verify identities.

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What is a Certificate Revocation List (CRL)?

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A list of digital certificates that have been revoked and are no longer trusted.

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What is the Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)?

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A protocol used by browsers to check the status of digital certificates.

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What is a Root Certificate?

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The foundational certificate in a PKI system, used to issue other certificates.

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What is an Extended Validation (EV) Certificate?

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A type of digital certificate that requires additional verification steps.

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What is a Wildcard Certificate?

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A certificate valid for multiple subdomains under the same root domain.