P

Padding

Most messages cannot be divided into blocks of a fixed length of e.g. 64 bit. There can remain an incomplete block which will then be completed with the method of padding. Such procedures exist for all block-orientated algorithms.

Pass Phrase

A long, but memorable character sequence (e.g. short sentences with punctuation) which should replace passwords as they offer more security.

Password

A secret character sequence whose knowledge is to serve as a replacement for the authentication of a participant. A password should be long enough to really ensure that an attacker cannot guess the password by trial and error.

PGP

PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") is a software application developed by P. Zimmermann for email encryption and email signatures. One of major outcomes of the availability of the software was the popularity of public key procedures since 1994. Another one was the reaction of the US government: Mr. Zimmermann refused to withdraw his free software from the market. As of 2006, he still belongs to the board of directors of PGP corporation in Mountain View, CA.

PKCS

Abbreviation for "Public Key Cryptography Standard". Issued and supported by RSA Laboratories, it is an inter company standard, meant to solve the difficult problem of product compatibility. The expression comprises a range of different documents, examples are PKCS#1 (for the RSA algorithm), PKCS#7 (for the formats used within cryptography) or PKCS#11.

PKCS#11

The widely used inter-company standard for a generic interface between software applications and cryptographic tokens like e.g. smart card ICs or soft tokens), defined by RSA laboratories. Comparable to Microsoft´s CAPI, it defines a much broader range of commands and allows a much more convenient interfacing between the user and the token. Therefore, most of the popular software applications are using security mechanisms based on the PKCS#11 standard. Most PKI clients (such as charismathics´ smart security interface©) support both interfaces, and consist of a DLL supporting PKCS#11 and another one supporting the Microsoft CAPI, by using a CSP software module.

charismathics interprets cryptographic interfaces

see iEnigma on charismathics YouTube channel

Cryptographic interfaces are used in computer platforms to shield the platform itself and to transfer data from a secure platform to another. The identification computer cryptographic interfaces are a few: first of all PKCS#11 - this is for all computer platforms and a standard in the identification world; Microsoft has developed the computer cryptographic platform called Cryptographic API that is served by a mini-driver or by a cryptographic service provider. Apple has developed a computer API called SecurityD that is served by a crypto API called TokenD.

More security terms are explained in the Silicon Trust video glossary.

"This interview was produced by Security-News.tv, a KOBN broadcast communication channel"

PKI

See Public Key Infrastructure.

plug´n´crypt Family

plug´n´crypt® is an all-in-one USB device. It combines the functionality of a smart card and a smart card reader with the convenience of a USB flash memory stick, creating a unique new product: Your easy-to-use companion for mobile security and secure data storage. ID, RFID and certgate are different presentations from our token.

Plugs into all standard software applications

Applications such as MS Explorer, Firefox, Outlook Express, MS Outlook, Netscape, etc. are considered standard applications, and our product line work perfectly together with all applications refered.

Power Attacks

A power attack measures the electric power consumption during a calculation to find out partial information about the secret data. SPA and DPA are power attacks.

Prime Number

A number (greater than 1) whose only divisors are 1 and itself. Prime numbers have special importance in cryptography e.g. due to the problem of factoring.

Profile Diversity PKCS#15

The cryptographic token information format standard. This describes a standard for the format of cryptographic credentials stored on cryptographic tokens. Profile Diversity in our case, our token can support the different profiles at the same token.

Protection Profile

A Protection Profile (PP) is a document typically created by a user or user community is an implementation independent specification of information assurance security requirements. A PP is a complete combination of security objectives, security related functional requirements, information assurance requirements, assumption, and rationale. A PP is part of the evaluation process for the Common Criteria (CC) standard and CC certification is sometimes required for IT procurement.

Pseudo Prime Number

A number which has not been proved to be a prime number, but which nonetheless has been demonstrated to have a low probability of being a composed number by means of special procedures (e.g. the so called Miller-Rabin test). The numbers used e.g. in the RSA algorithm are usually pseudo prime numbers. A humorous description of this expression is ”prime number of industrial quality”.

Pseudo Random Number

Many cryptographic mechanisms require random numbers (e.g. in key generation). The problem, however, is that it is difficult to generate true random numbers in software. Therefore, so called pseudo-random number generators are used, which should be initialized with a real random element (the so called seed).

Public Key

This is the publicly known key in an asymmetric cipher which is used for encryption and verification of digital signatures.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

A Public Key Infrastructure represents an infrastructure to manage public key certificates. A PKI does not create security by itself, instead it is a combination of hardware and software components, and policies and various procedures. It is primarily based on certificates, which on their part through digital signatures from a trusted instance, authenticate keys of the communication partner.

Public Key Algorithms

Describes the class of algorithms in which the required key is divided into a publicly known key (the public key) and one part to be kept secret (the private key). Due to this division, these algorithms are also called asymmetric ciphers; examples are the RSA algorithm and most of the ECC-algorithm.

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