A key is a piece of information used by a for and/or . Encrypted messages should remain secure even if everything about the , except for the key, is public knowledge. cipher encryption decryption cryptosystem In , the same key is used for both encryption and decryption. In , there exists a pair of related keys known as the and . The public key is freely available, whereas the private key is kept secret. The public key is able to encrypt messages that only the corresponding private key is able to decrypt, and vice versa. symmetric-key cryptography public-key cryptography public key private key View Previous Terms: Block cipher mode of operation Certificate authority Challenge-response authentication Cipher Cipher suite Ciphertext CORS CORS-safelisted request header CORS-safelisted response header Cross-site scripting Cryptanalysis Cryptographic hash function Cryptography CSP CSRF Decryption Digital certificate DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security) Encryption Forbidden header name Forbidden response header name Hash HMAC HPKP HSTS HTTPS MitM OWASP Preflight request Public-key cryptography Reporting directive Robots.txt Same-origin policy Session Hijacking SQL Injection Symmetric-key cryptography TOFU Transport Layer Security (TLS) Credits Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Key Published under license Open CC Attribution ShareAlike 3.0