P - Cybersecurity Glossary

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Glossary P

Personal Identification NumberA memorized secret typically consisting of only decimal digits.See NIST SP 1800-17b under Personal Identification Number NIST SP 1800-17c under Personal Identification Number ...

Pseudonym

A name assigned through a formal process by a federal department or agency to a federal employee for the purpose of the employee’s protection (i.e., ...

PSK

A single secret key used by IPsec endpoints to authenticate endpoints to each other.See NIST SP 800-77 Rev. 1 under Pre-shared Key for more information.

Perimeter

1. Encompasses all those components of the system that are to be accredited by the DAA, and excludes separately accredited systems to which the system ...

Packet

The logical unit of network communications produced by the transport layer. See NIST SP 800-86 for more information.

Packet Filter

A routing device that provides access control functionality for host addresses and communication sessions. See NIST SP 800-41 Rev. 1 for more information. Specifies which types of traffic should ...

Packet Filtering

See “Packet Filtering”. See NIST SP 800-41 Rev. 1 under Stateless Inspection for more information.

Packet Sniffer

Software that observes and records network traffic. Software that monitors network traffic on wired or wireless networks and captures packets. See NIST SP 800-86 under Packet Sniffer for more information.

Parity

Bit(s) used to determine whether a block of data has been altered. Rationale: Term has been replaced by the term “parity bit”.

Parity Bit

A checksum that is computed on a block of bits by computing the binary sum of the individual bits in the block and then discarding ...

Partition

A logical portion of a media that functions as though it were physically separate from other logical portions of the media. See NIST SP 800-86 for more information. ...

Passive Attack

An attack against an authentication protocol where the attacker intercepts data traveling along the network between the claimant and verifier, but does not alter the ...

Passive Security Testing

Security testing that does not involve any direct interaction with the targets, such as sending packets to a target. See NIST SP 800-115 for ...

Passphrase

A passphrase is a memorized secret consisting of a sequence of words or other text that a claimant uses to authenticate their identity. A passphrase ...

Password

A string of characters (letters, numbers, and other symbols) used to authenticate an identity or to verify access authorization. See the following under Password for more ...

Password Cracking

The process of recovering secret passwords stored in a computer system or transmitted over a network. See NIST SP 800-115 for more information.

Patch

 A “repair job” for a piece of programming; also known as a “fix”. A patch is the immediate solution to an identified problem that is ...

Patch Management

The systematic notification, identification, deployment, installation, and verification of operating system and application software code revisions. These revisions are known as patches, hot fixes, and ...

Phishing

Phishing is the practice of sending email to users with the purpose of tricking them into revealing personal information or clicking on a link. A ...

Plain text

Plain text is simple text displayed in a readable format. Encryption converts plain text to ciphertext.The following graphic shows how plain text is converted to ...

POODLE attack

Padding Oracle on Downgraded Legacy Encryption. POODLE is referred to as both a downgrade attack, and a man-in-the-middle (MITM) exploit. It essentially forces a TLS ...

Payload

Consists of the information passed down from the previous layer. See NIST SP 800-113 for detailed information. The input data to the CCM generation-encryption process that is both authenticated ...

Penetration Testing

A method of testing where testers target individual binary components or the application as a whole to determine whether intra or intercomponent vulnerabilities can be ...

Permission

Authorization to perform some action on a system.See NISTIR 7316 for more information.

Physical Access Control System

An electronic system that controls the ability of people or vehicles to enter a protected area by means of authentication and authorization at access control ...