A derived key is a key, which may be calculated (derived) by a well-defined algorithm from a input consisting of public as well as secret data. As an example, the initial secret data might be a random seed, i.e., a string of random bits (see modular arithmetic), which is then exponentiated modulo, e.g., an RSA-modulus (say both of length 1024; see RSA public key encryption), after which the derived key may be the lower 128 bits of the result R (current seed), which is kept and exponentiated again for the derivation of the next key. The advantage is that if two parties share the same initial seed, they may independently of each other calculate identical derived keys by keeping track of the number of iterations.
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© 2005 International Federation for Information Processing
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Landrock, P. (2005). Derived key. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23483-7_103
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23483-7_103
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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