home/glossary/Backtracking Resistance

Backtracking Resistance

nounid 1639·updated May 9, 2026
candidate

Backtracking resistance is provided relative to time T if there is assurance that an adversary who has knowledge of the internal state of the Deterministic Random Bit Generator (DRBG) at some time subsequent to time T would be unable to distinguish between observations of ideal random bitstrings and (previously unseen) bitstrings that were output by the DRBG prior to time T. The complementary assurance is called Prediction Resistance.

MWE

Classifications

Entity Type

Control85%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Sensitivity

Regulated80%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Information Class

unclassified

Variants

plural
Backtracking Resistances
possessive
Backtracking Resistance's
pluralpossessive
Backtracking Resistances'

Framework definitions

NISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 21 senseview framework →
§1
Backtracking resistance is provided relative to time T if there is assurance that an adversary who has knowledge of the internal state of the Deterministic Random Bit Generator (DRBG) at some time subsequent to time T would be unable to distinguish between observations of ideal random bitstrings and (previously unseen) bitstrings that were output by the DRBG prior to time T. The complementary assurance is called Prediction Resistance.
NIST SP 800-90A1 senseview framework →
§1
Backtracking resistance is provided relative to time T if there is assurance that an adversary who has knowledge of the internal state of the Deterministic Random Bit Generator (DRBG) at some time subsequent to time T would be unable to distinguish between observations of ideal random bitstrings and (previously unseen) bitstrings that were output by the DRBG prior to time T. The complementary assurance is called Prediction Resistance.

Outgoing relationships

No outgoing triples
This term is not the subject of any RDF-style relationship yet.

Incoming relationships

No incoming triples
No other term currently asserts a relationship to this one.