Trust Anchor
An established point of trust (usually based on the authority of some person, office, or organization) from which an entity begins the validation of an authorized process or authorized (signed) package. A "trust anchor" is sometimes defined as just a public key used for different purposes (e.g., validating a Certification Authority, validating a signed software package or key, validating the process [or person] loading the signed software or key).
Senses
A public key and the name of a certification authority that is used to validate the first certificate in a sequence of certificates. The trust anchor’s public key is used to verify the signature on a certificate issued by a trust anchor certification authority. The security of the validation process depends upon the authenticity and integrity of the trust anchor. Trust anchors are often distributed as self-signed certificates.
A public or symmetric key that is trusted because it is directly built into hardware or software, or securely provisioned via out-of-band means, rather than because it is vouched for by another trusted entity (e.g. in a public key certificate).
Classifications
Entity Type
Sensitivity
Information Class
Variants
- plural
- Trust Anchors
- possessive
- Trust Anchor's
- pluralpossessive
- Trust Anchors'