private key
nounid
3666·updated May 9, 2026candidate
A cryptographic key, used with a public key cryptographic algorithm, that is uniquely associated with an entity and is not made public. In an asymmetric (public) cryptosystem, the private key is associated with a public key. Depending on the algorithm, the private key may be used, for example, to: 1) Compute the corresponding public key, 2) Compute a digital signature that may be verified by the corresponding public key, 3) Decrypt keys that were encrypted by the corresponding public key, or 4) Compute a shared secret during a key-agreement transaction.
polysemousMWE
Classifications
Entity Type
Credential90%rule-basedr:entity.credential.cert.v1
Sensitivity
unclassified
Information Class
unclassified
Variants
- plural
- private keys
- possessive
- private key's
- pluralpossessive
- private keys'
Framework definitions
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) Cybersecurity Lexicon1 senseview framework →
- §1 · extended_definition_available
- A cryptographic key that must be kept confidential and is used to enable the operation of an asymmetric (public key) cryptographic algorithm.
- §1
- The secret part of an asymmetric key pair that is typically used to digitally sign or decrypt data.
- §2 · sense_2_pending_review
- A cryptographic key, used with a public key cryptographic algorithm, that is uniquely associated with an entity and is not made public. In an asymmetric (public) cryptosystem, the private key is associated with a public key. Depending on the algorithm, the private key may be used, for example, to: 1) Compute the corresponding public key, 2) Compute a digital signature that may be verified by the corresponding public key, 3) Decrypt keys that were encrypted by the corresponding public key, or 4) Compute a shared secret during a key-agreement transaction.
- §3 · sense_3_pending_review
- A cryptographic key used with a public key cryptographic algorithm, which is uniquely associated with an entity, and not made public; it is used to generate a digital signature; this key is mathematically linked with a corresponding public key.
- §4 · sense_4_pending_review
- A cryptographic key, used with a public key cryptographic algorithm, that is uniquely associated with an entity and is not made public.
- §5 · sense_5_pending_review
- In an asymmetric cryptography scheme, the private or secret key of a key pair which must be kept confidential and is used to decrypt messages encrypted with the public key or to digitally sign messages, which can then be validated with the public key.
- §1
- In an asymmetric cryptography scheme, the private or secret key of a key pair which must be kept confidential and is used to decrypt messages encrypted with the public key or to digitally sign messages, which can then be validated with the public key.
- §1
- The secret part of an asymmetric key pair that is typically used to digitally sign or decrypt data.
- §1
- A cryptographic key, used with a public key cryptographic algorithm, that is uniquely associated with an entity and is not made public.
- §1
- A cryptographic key, used with a public key cryptographic algorithm, that is uniquely associated with an entity and is not made public. In an asymmetric (public) cryptosystem, the private key is associated with a public key. Depending on the algorithm, the private key may be used, for example, to: 1) Compute the corresponding public key, 2) Compute a digital signature that may be verified by the corresponding public key, 3) Decrypt keys that were encrypted by the corresponding public key, or 4) Compute a shared secret during a key-agreement transaction.
- §1
- A cryptographic key used with a public key cryptographic algorithm, which is uniquely associated with an entity, and not made public; it is used to generate a digital signature; this key is mathematically linked with a corresponding public key.
Outgoing relationships
No outgoing triples
This term is not the subject of any RDF-style relationship yet.
Incoming relationships
- related
- ←keynoun