Questions tagged [terminology]
For questions about names of attacks, vulnerabilities, concepts, etc.
0
votes
1answer
96 views
What is a “security bod”?
This is a term I ran across in a blog post by Troy Hunt (which was linked from an answer on this site):
I heard a perfect example of this just the other day when speaking to a security bod in a ...
0
votes
0answers
56 views
What does w.r.t. mean [closed]
What does the abbreviation w.r.t. mean in the context of security and/or cryptology?
It's being used the crypto books combined with other terms like:
anonymity w.r.t. third parties
constant-round ...
0
votes
1answer
41 views
What's the relation between a Security Framework & Standards, Guidelines, Procedures and Policies?
I'm currently writing a paper about security standards. Therefore several terms have to be defined before I can actually start. The problem is that in every resource the term "Framework" is somehow ...
1
vote
0answers
16 views
Vocabulary matters: link between faults and weaknesses
I am trying to make the link between faults and weaknesses (As defined by Common Weaknesses Enumeration, a MITRE project). The word "fault" is generally used in the reliability domain, to designate ...
-1
votes
2answers
178 views
What is difference between cracking and ethical hacking?
Today I read about ethical hacking and cracking. I read that ethical hacking is legal but cracking is illegal. The confusion came in my mind when I think that both are same.
So how can we identify ...
33
votes
3answers
7k views
What does “in-house hash function” mean?
In security news, I faced a new term related to hash functions: it is reported that the "in-house hash function" used in IOTA platform is broken (i.e. Curl-P hash function). You can find the complete ...
1
vote
5answers
168 views
What does “hacked” actually mean? [duplicate]
In the context of a) information security and b) an operating system such as Windows 10 or OS X, what actually constitutes a "hack"? Most non-technical end-users associate the term "hack" with the ...
3
votes
3answers
107 views
Difference between white-box testing and secure code review
As far as I know, penetration testing can be divided into black-box, gray-box, and white-box testing. But then what about secure code review? Is it part of white-box testing or is it separate?
3
votes
2answers
121 views
How are ciphers related to cryptographic algorithms like DES or AES?
It looks like I am having a terminology issue here. In cryptography, we have stream ciphers and block ciphers. I understand their difference. We also have cryptographic algorithms like AES (Rijndael).
...
3
votes
1answer
125 views
What does Frank Abagnale mean by “Level 4 security” in his talk at Google?
During his talk at Google, Frank Abagnale mentioned the following:
...we will be doing away with passwords in the next 24 months. Passwords will leave the world, there will be no more passwords. ...
11
votes
4answers
3k views
Eavesdropping vs. sniffing
I'm taking a coursera course, and they take pains when talking about network security to distinguish between eavesdropping and sniffing.
According to their definitions, sniffing involves reading or ...
0
votes
2answers
40 views
What is the correct terminology for enforcing access control by means of cryptography, or on a privileged list?
I have a server that enforces access control by means of cryptography, by not giving up data, or by a combination thereof.
By the former (cryptography), I mean: If a user requests some data, the ...
76
votes
4answers
17k views
What exactly is CTF and how can I as programmer prepare for a CTF with beginner-friendly people?
I reached out to an old friend of mine who was a terrific programmer back in my school days and he invited me to attend one of the CTF events with his university group.
This group seems very beginner ...
3
votes
2answers
258 views
Difference between “weakness” and “vulnerability”?
What is the difference between the terms "vulnerability" and "weakness" when it comes to security?
I was looking at the CWE page and it mentions that a weakness leads to a security vulnerability. I ...
0
votes
1answer
37 views
Benign, Malicious Domains and Definitions
I am working on a research project where we segregate domains used for malicious purpose from benign domains.
However, my guide does not want the term malicious domain and benign domain in the paper....
3
votes
2answers
158 views
Why are Protection Rings called rings?
Protection rings are different privilege levels granted to software, with the kernel being the most privileged, applications the least privileged, and drivers somewhere in between.
My question is why ...
1
vote
1answer
128 views
What is this phishing technique called using subdomains
I'm writing a blog post analyzing a list of phishing domains and I'm coming across a lot of IDN homograph attack domains and these "subdomain attack domains" but I cannot find the technical/good way ...
0
votes
3answers
974 views
Port sweep vs port scan
I was asked this question in an interview:
"What is a port sweep?"
When I replied with port scan he said that my answer was not a scan, it was a port sweep. I googled and found "tcp sweep: but not "...
3
votes
2answers
405 views
Is server public key and Diffie Hellman public are the same?
I am trying to understand the working of TLS. I understand that there are various way to generate the master secret used to encrypting the data. Such as DH (Ephemeral DHE) and RSA. I understand that, ...
163
votes
4answers
33k views
What does it mean to “burn a zero-day”?
I noticed a comment on this answer where another user said
...but it requires risking burning a 0day, which people are not always all that willing to do.
I did an Internet Search for the phrase "...
2
votes
1answer
58 views
Is it reasonable to consider logs as a “technical control”?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and one of the examples of technical controls (referenced in the course training material) confuse me:
Technical controls, also referred to as logical controls, are ...
3
votes
2answers
187 views
Is there a difference between “risk tolerance” and “risk appetite”?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and I'm a little confused on the difference between "Risk Appetite" and "Risk Tolerance". Is there a clear and discernible difference? Can the terms be used ...
1
vote
1answer
25 views
Is this description of the term “event” accurate within the context of Business Continuity and Disaster recovery?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and I came across this description:
An event is any unscheduled adverse impact to the operating
environment. An event is distinguished from a disaster by the
...
2
votes
1answer
96 views
Is there a difference between “Maximum Tolerable Downtime” and “Maximum Allowed Downtime”?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and one of the BC/DR terms that is referenced in my study material is "Maximum Allowable Downtime". The definition for it is:
MAD (Maxium Allowable Downtime) How ...
0
votes
1answer
52 views
What's the difference between “directory services” and “identity repositories”?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and the study material references two different terms which seems very similar:
Directory Services A system for managing identities and attributes. These allow the ...
0
votes
0answers
224 views
What's the difference between “Organization normative framework” and “Application normative framework”?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and I'm confused with some of the terminologies between Organization normative framework and application normative framework.
The training material defines them as:
...
7
votes
3answers
321 views
When did we start to call malicious software “malware”?
I'm looking into the history of malware. When was malicious software fist called malware? I think that malicious software is called "computer virus".
19
votes
3answers
5k views
What is the difference between “Incident”, “Attack” and “event”?
In the Computer and network security incident taxonomy what are the differences between "Incident", "Attack" and "event"? Where does "threat" fit with them?
2
votes
1answer
128 views
Does “crypto offloading” require the use of ASICs? Can the concept be applied elsewhere?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and the training material is a little vague on the term "crypto offloading".
The term was mentioned in passing while describing TLS:
TLS is a protocol designed to ...
2
votes
1answer
369 views
What's the difference between an API gateway and XML gateway?
I'm studying for the CCSP exam and am confused on the difference between an "API gateway" and "XML gateway". The training material I have states:
API gateways are also an important part of a ...
3
votes
1answer
405 views
What's the difference between an “application-aware firewall” and a “web application firewall”?
I'm studying for the CCSP and my training material isn't very clear on the definition between "application-aware firewall" and "web application firewall".
The training material states:
Early on, ...
1
vote
1answer
686 views
Is SHA synonymous with SHA1 or SHA0?
There is so little info and so much confusion out there.
People often equate SHA2 as being SHA256; so then would SHA be 160 bit, also known as SHA1?
Is SHA deprecated, like SHA1?
Are they the ...
1
vote
1answer
156 views
When to model a concept via object vs taxonomy vs galaxy in MISP?
Taxonomies in MISP are a triple of (namespace, predicate, value) referred to as "machinetags".
Galaxies seem to be similar. The MISP galaxy docs state that
MISP galaxy is a simple method to ...
0
votes
3answers
155 views
What is the difference between Compliance and Auditing in Information Security?
I am a student working on my semester project and it's about developing a SIEM solution with Big Data tools to be used in a SOC (security operations centre) and I know that collecting logs can be used ...
0
votes
0answers
23 views
Taxonomy of Distributed and/or computational attacks
This question is actually divided into two sub-questions:
1- Are there any other attacks beside BruteForce cracking passwords that benefit by having access to massive computational power?
2- The ...
10
votes
1answer
402 views
What is SpeedSurfing?
My Sophos antivirus detected what it calls "SpeedSurfing", and my Google-fu is failing me. The Chrome extension it deleted was Boomerang for Gmail.
-2
votes
1answer
103 views
What exactly is the meaning of 'trojan' and 'rootkit'? [duplicate]
I know both are a type of malware, trojans 'disguise them self as a useful program' and rootkits 'embed them self in the system to avoid detection'. Technically how do they accomplish such things? I'm ...
-1
votes
1answer
55 views
What is the meaning of “me” in ipfw rules?
ipfw is an IP firewall and traffic shaper control program.
The term "me" appears on ipfw statements like below:
ipfw add 02050 allow tcp from me to any out
I would like to know exactly what "me" ...
17
votes
4answers
3k views
Where does authenticity fit into the CIA Triad?
Consider a chat application where an attacker is able to send messages in any user's name. This obviously violates the message's authenticity. But what aspect of CIA would be violated?
Integrity ...
4
votes
1answer
291 views
What's the difference between “load testing” and “stress testing” within the context of a security audit?
I'm preparing for the CCSP examine and am trying to wrap my mind around the concepts of "load testing" and "stress testing" within the context of security.
I think the difference here is that:
...
1
vote
2answers
216 views
SIEM and Security Analytics
I've encountered the two terms 'SIEM' and 'Security Analytics' a lot in the past few weeks, unfortunately I still don't understand the difference.
According to some research I've done about these ...
2
votes
2answers
183 views
Unambiguous terminology for different kinds of malware?
I noticed in the literatures that there are no exact boundaries for numerous information security terms such as malware, virus, etc. Some people say malware in the umbrella under which viruses, worms, ...
1
vote
2answers
66 views
Is crimeware defined by anything other than intent?
I'm learning about different types of viruses, and one category of virus is "crimeware." I read the wikipedia page for crimeware, and to me it seems that crimeware is just a specific usage of spyware.
...
0
votes
1answer
360 views
Difference between Non-discretionary and Role-based Access control?
What's the difference between Non-discretionary access control and Role-based Access Control? In CISSP book both mentioned in the different paragraph as in different entity. But In some other place (...
0
votes
1answer
187 views
Is IP geolocation threat intelligence?
If the suppliers of your business are all located in North America, but your supplier web portal suddenly receives a lot of traffic from elsewhere, you should investigate. Therefore, IP geolocation ...
2
votes
1answer
515 views
What is the difference between “web penetration testing” and “web application penetration testing”?
I decided to start learning "web application penetration testing". But while I am learning I find there is another term "web penetration testing". Can someone tell me what's the difference between ...
2
votes
1answer
299 views
What is an indicator of compromise?
I'm struggling to understand what is an indicator of compromise.
I found different definitions on the web but I still don't know.
The definitions I found are:
1 - Something (file, network connection) ...
4
votes
1answer
56 views
Is there a difference in terminology between the words “cryptogram” and “ciphertext”?
I've noticed that certain security professionals use the term "ciphertext" while others use "cryptogram". Is there any meaningful difference between those terms? Or can they be used interchangeably?
5
votes
1answer
221 views
Why is it called micalg?
RFC3851 says:
The multipart/signed Content type has two required parameters: the
protocol parameter and the micalg parameter.
and
The micalg parameter allows for one-pass processing when ...
0
votes
3answers
112 views
More than one admin required on site to login to a database/resources
What is the terminology used in computer security where you need at least two admins at the same time to login/access a database/resources? Maybe by each having part of the password or key. This used ...
