Glossary of Encryption Terminology
Welcome to the Encrypti0n.com glossary: Your quick, concise reference to essential cryptographic and encryption terms clearly explained for easy understanding.
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
A popular symmetric cipher used worldwide to ensure secure data encryption.
AES-GCM (Galois/Counter Mode)
An advanced encryption mode of AES providing both confidentiality and built-in authentication, protecting against data tampering.
Base64
A method of encoding binary data into ASCII text, useful for secure data transmission.
Ciphertext
Encrypted data resulting from transforming plaintext; unreadable without a cryptographic key.
Encryption
The conversion of plaintext into ciphertext to secure data against unauthorized access.
Decryption
The reversal of encryption, converting ciphertext back into original plaintext.
IV (Initialization Vector)
A unique random value used during encryption to produce distinct ciphertext for identical plaintext.
Nonce
A "number used once" to secure cryptographic processes from replay attacks, essential in AES-GCM.
Argon2 (Password-Based Key Derivation)
A method for securely deriving encryption keys from passwords using salts and is resistable to specialised hardware attacks.
Plaintext
Original, readable data before encryption, also called cleartext.
Salt
Random data combined with passwords during key derivation to prevent precomputed attacks.
Symmetric Encryption
Encryption where the same secret key is used for both encrypting and decrypting messages.
Tamper-proof
A feature of secure cryptography (like AES-GCM) ensuring alterations in encrypted data are detectable.
Web Crypto API
A secure JavaScript API offering cryptographic functions, such as AES-GCM encryption, key wrapping and key imports, in browsers.