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The automobile key will not work to open the safe deposit box and vice versa. This analogy provides some insight on how cryptographic key types work. These keys are categorized in respect to how they are used and what properties they possess. A cryptographic key is categorized according to how it will be used and what properties it has.
The Microsoft Windows platform specific Cryptographic Application Programming Interface (also known variously as CryptoAPI, Microsoft Cryptography API, MS-CAPI or simply CAPI) is an application programming interface included with Microsoft Windows operating systems that provides services to enable developers to secure Windows-based applications using cryptography.
A key in cryptography is a piece of information, usually a string of numbers or letters that are stored in a file, which, when processed through a cryptographic algorithm, can encode or decode cryptographic data. Based on the used method, the key can be different sizes and varieties, but in all cases, the strength of the encryption relies on ...
FIREFLY key - (NSA) keys used in an NSA system based on public key cryptography. Key derivation function (KDF) - function used to derive a key from a secret value, e.g. to derive KEK from Diffie-Hellman key exchange. [citation needed] key encryption key (KEK) - key used to protect MEK keys (or DEK/TEK if MEK is not used).
However, no cryptographic module has ever been found to be signed by _NSAKEY, and Microsoft denies that any other certification authority exists. [citation needed] Bruce Schneier believes that the above type of concern, i.e. NSA putting a key in Windows so it can load arbitrary backdoored CSPs, is unfounded. He argues that there are easier ways ...
In Windows 2000, XP or later, the user's RSA private key is encrypted using a hash of the user's NTLM password hash plus the user name – use of a salted hash makes it extremely difficult to reverse the process and recover the private key without knowing the user's passphrase. Also, again, setting Syskey to mode 2 or 3 (Syskey typed in during ...
The length of the encryption key is an indicator of the strength of the encryption method. [29] For example, the original encryption key, DES (Data Encryption Standard), was 56 bits, meaning it had 2^56 combination possibilities. With today's computing power, a 56-bit key is no longer secure, being vulnerable to brute force attacks. [30]
The PKCS #11 standard defines a platform-independent API to cryptographic tokens, such as hardware security modules (HSM) and smart cards, and names the API itself "Cryptoki" (from "cryptographic token interface" and pronounced as "crypto-key", although "PKCS #11" is often used to refer to the API as well as the standard that defines it).