Glossary of Terms
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Glossary of Terms

A-Z crypto & networking vocabulary

Definitions of core KSP protocol and cryptographic terminology:

AEAD

Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data. A class of symmetric encryption algorithms that protects both plaintext secrecy and metadata integrity. KSP utilizes AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305.

AAD

Additional Authenticated Data. Data passed to the AEAD cipher that is verified for integrity but is not encrypted. KSP passes its 48-byte header as AAD.

Forward Secrecy

A key agreement property where compromise of the server's long-term certificate private key does not expose session keys derived in previous connections. Attained via ephemeral X25519 key exchanges.

HKDF

HMAC-based Key Derivation Function. Used to expand the raw X25519 shared Diffie-Hellman secret into multiple independent keys (write, read, IV) for secure session operations.

Replay Attack

An attack where a valid message transmission is intercepted and re-sent later. Prevented in KSP via O(1) sliding window bitmap trackers checking packet sequence counters.