| Alex Gaynor | 8c9dcb3 | 2013-11-03 13:10:57 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | Glossary |
| 2 | ======== |
| 3 | |
| 4 | .. glossary:: |
| 5 | |
| 6 | plaintext |
| 7 | User-readable data you care about. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ciphertext |
| 10 | The encoded data, it's not user readable. Potential attackers are able |
| 11 | to see this. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | encryption |
| 14 | The process of converting plaintext to ciphertext. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | decryption |
| 17 | The process of converting ciphertext to plaintext. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | key |
| 20 | Secret data is encoded with a function using this key. Sometimes |
| Alex Gaynor | a0516bf | 2013-11-03 13:20:41 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 21 | multiple keys are used. These **must** be kept secret, if a key is |
| 22 | exposed to an attacker, any data encrypted with it will be exposed. |
| Alex Gaynor | 8c9dcb3 | 2013-11-03 13:10:57 -0800 | [diff] [blame] | 23 | |
| 24 | symmetric cryptography |
| 25 | Cryptographic operations where encryption and decryption use the same |
| 26 | key. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | asymmetric cryptography |
| 29 | Cryptographic operations where encryption and decryption use different |
| 30 | keys. There are seperate encryption and decryption keys. |