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Active Directory (AD) A directory that stores information about resources on the network and provides a means of centrally organizing, managing, and controlling access to those resources.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) A TCP/IP protocol used to resolve a node's physical address from a provided IP address.

agent A software routine that performs designated functions, such as waiting in the background and performing an action when a specified event occurs.

anonymizer A website that allows a user to access other website undetected by a proxy server.

anonymous Having no known name, identity, or source.

anti-Trojan Software specifically designed to help detect and remove Trojans.

antivirus A program that attempts to recognize, prevent, and remove computer viruses and other malicious software from the computer.

archive A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest.

auditing Checking a computer system to verify intended programs and reliable data and to see whether the data is corrupted or displaying inaccurate results.

backdoor A gap in the security of a computer system that's purposely left open to permit access. Hackers can create backdoors to a system once it has been compromised.

black-box testing Testing a system or network without any knowledge of the internal structure.

banner grabbing A technique that enables a hacker to identify the type of operating system or application running on a target server. A specific request for the banner is often allowed through firewalls because it uses legitimate connection requests such as Telnet.

Black hat A malicious hacker.

buffer A portion of memory available to store data.

buffer overflow A situation where a program writes data beyond the buffer space allocated in memory. This can result in other valid memory being overwritten. Buffer overflows can occur as a consequence of bugs, improper configuration, and lack of bounds checking when receiving program input.

bug A software or hardware error that triggers the malfunction of a particular program.

cache A fast storage buffer, such as that found directly on the central processing unit of a computer.

calling procedure A software routine that passes control to a different software routine. When these routines exist on separate computers, the systems often use Remote Procedure Call (RPC) libraries. Also refers to function calls and subroutines.

certificate authority (CA) The organization or program that issues digital certificates.

Common Internet File System/Server Message Block The standard for file sharing used with Microsoft Windows and IBM OS/2 operating systems.

client A system or software process that accesses a remote service on another computer.

countermeasure An action taken to offset another action. Usually a fix for a vulnerability in a system.

covert channel A channel that transfers communication in a nonstandard way, often such that it can't be easily detected. Too frequently, this form of communication violates the security policy by using a channel in an unintended manner.

cross-site scripting A computer security exploit that is used to execute a malicious script.

daemon A background program that resides on a computer and services requests.

database A collection of data or information that's organized for easy access and analysis.

decryption The process of converting encrypted data to plain text.

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) A network area that sits between an organization's internal network and an external network, usually the Internet. Most publicly available servers such as Web and FTP reside in the DMZ.

digital certificate Credentials that contain personal information such as a name, a public key, an expiration date, and the digital signature of the certificate authority that issued the certificate.

digital signature A hash of a message that has been encrypted with an individual's private key. It serves as validation of a message's authenticity.

DNS enumeration Locating DNS records from a DNS server.