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What is PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)?

A framework of policies, hardware, and software for creating, managing, distributing, and revoking digital certificates.

PKI enables secure communication through digital certificates that bind public keys to identities. Certificate Authorities (CAs) issue certificates, Registration Authorities verify identities, and Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) track revoked certificates.

PKI underpins HTTPS, email encryption (S/MIME), code signing, VPNs, and document signing. Enterprise PKI manages internal certificates for servers, users, and devices. Let's Encrypt democratized PKI by offering free, automated DV certificates.

Related Terms

DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing)
Testing a running application from the outside by sending malicious requests to discover security vulnerabilities.
Principle of Least Privilege
A security principle where users and programs receive only the minimum access rights needed to perform their specific tasks.
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
A platform that collects, correlates, and analyzes security events from across an organization to detect threats and incidents.
Input Validation
The process of verifying that user-supplied data meets expected formats, types, and ranges before processing it.
Content Security Policy (CSP)
An HTTP security header that controls which resources a browser is allowed to load for a web page, preventing XSS and data injection.
Cryptographic Key Management
The practices and procedures for generating, storing, distributing, rotating, and revoking encryption keys securely.
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