1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

Active Directory: The Windows implementation of a general-purpose directory service, which uses LDAP as its primary access protocol. Active Directory stores information about a variety of objects in the network such as user accounts, computer accounts, groups, and all related credential information used by Kerberos [MS-KILE]. Active Directory is either deployed as Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) or Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS), which are both described in [MS-ADOD]: Active Directory Protocols Overview.

authentication header (AH): An Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) encapsulation mode that provides authentication and message integrity. For more information, see [RFC4302] section 1.

binary large object (BLOB): A collection of binary data stored as a single entity in a database.

client-side extension GUID (CSE GUID): A GUID  that enables a specific client-side extension on the Group Policy client to be associated with policy data that is stored in the logical and physical components of a Group Policy Object (GPO) on the Group Policy server, for that particular extension.

curly braced GUID string: The string representation of a 128-bit globally unique identifier (GUID) using the form {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}, where X denotes a hexadecimal digit. The string representation between the enclosing braces is the standard representation of a GUID as described in [RFC4122] section 3. Unlike a GUIDString, a curly braced GUID string includes enclosing braces.

default response rule: A rule that ensures that computers respond to requests for secure communication. If an active policy does not have a rule defined for a computer that is requesting secure communication, the default response rule is applied and security is negotiated.

directory: The database that stores information about objects such as users, groups, computers, printers, and the directory service that makes this information available to users and applications.

directory string: A string encoded in UTF-8 as defined in [RFC2252] section 6.10.

distinguished name (DN): A name that uniquely identifies an object by using the relative distinguished name (RDN) for the object, and the names of container objects and domains that contain the object. The distinguished name (DN) identifies the object and its location in a tree.

domain: A set of users and computers sharing a common namespace and management infrastructure. At least one computer member of the set has to act as a domain controller (DC) and host a member list that identifies all members of the domain, as well as optionally hosting the Active Directory service. The domain controller provides authentication of members, creating a unit of trust for its members. Each domain has an identifier that is shared among its members. For more information, see [MS-AUTHSOD] section 1.1.1.5 and [MS-ADTS].

Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP): An Internet Protocol security (IPsec) encapsulation mode that provides authentication, data confidentiality, and message integrity. For more information, see [RFC4303] section 1.

fully qualified domain name (FQDN): An unambiguous domain name that gives an absolute location in the Domain Name System's (DNS) hierarchy tree, as defined in [RFC1035] section 3.1 and [RFC2181] section 11.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] have to be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

Group Policy: A mechanism that allows the implementer to specify managed configurations for users and computers in an Active Directory service environment.

Group Policy extension: A protocol that extends the functionality of Group Policy. Group Policy extensions consist of client-side extensions and Administrative tool extensions. They provide settings and other Group Policy information that can be read from and written to Group Policy data store components. Group Policy Extensions depend on the Group Policy: Core Protocol, via the core Group Policy engine, to identify GPOs containing a list of extensions that apply to a particular Group Policy client.

Group Policy Object (GPO): A collection of administrator-defined specifications of the policy settings that can be applied to groups of computers in a domain. Each GPO includes two elements: an object that resides in the Active Directory for the domain, and a corresponding file system subdirectory that resides on the sysvol DFS share of the Group Policy server for the domain.

Internet Key Exchange (IKE): The protocol that is used to negotiate and provide authenticated keying material for security associations (SAs) in a protected manner. For more information, see [RFC2409].

Internet Protocol security (IPsec): A framework of open standards for ensuring private, secure communications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks through the use of cryptographic security services. IPsec supports network-level peer authentication, data origin authentication, data integrity, data confidentiality (encryption), and replay protection.

Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP): A cryptographic protocol specified in [RFC2408] that defines procedures and packet formats to establish, negotiate, modify and delete security associations (SAs). It forms the basis of the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol, as specified in [RFC2409].

IPsec administrative plug-in: The Internet Protocol security (IPsec) extension plug-in that operates as part of the group policy configuration tool that reads and writes IPsec policy using the Group Policy: IP Security (IPsec) Protocol Extension [MS-GPIPSEC].

IPsec client-side plug-in: The Internet Protocol security (IPsec) extension plug-in that operates on the client machine to retrieve the policy using the Group Policy: IP Security (IPsec) Protocol Extension [MS-GPIPSEC].

IPsec component: The implementation of the Internet Protocol security (IPsec)/Internet Key Exchange (IKE) functionality on a client machine. This is the component that the Group Policy: IP Security (IPsec) Protocol Extension [MS-GPIPSEC] configures with the IPsec/IKE policy that is transferred as part of the protocol.

main mode (MM): The first phase of an Internet Key Exchange (IKE) negotiation that performs authentication and negotiates a main mode security association (MM SA) between the peers. For more information, see [RFC2409] section 5.

negotiation filter association (NFA): A term that is used to describe the logical binding together of the appropriate IPsec filter and IPsec negotiation policy settings for an IPsec policy.

security association (SA): A simplex "connection" that provides security services to the traffic carried by it. See [RFC4301] for more information.

tool extension GUID or administrative plug-in GUID: A GUID defined separately for each of the user policy settings and computer policy settings that associates a specific administrative tool plug-in with a set of policy settings that can be stored in a Group Policy Object (GPO).

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): A protocol used with the Internet Protocol (IP) to send data in the form of message units between computers over the Internet. TCP handles keeping track of the individual units of data (called packets) that a message is divided into for efficient routing through the Internet.

tunnel mode: An IP encapsulation mechanism, as specified in [RFC4301], that provides Internet Protocol security (IPsec) security to tunneled IP packets. IPsec processing is performed by the tunnel endpoints, which can be (but are typically not) the end hosts.

Unicode: A character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium that represents almost all of the written languages of the world. The Unicode standard [UNICODE5.0.0/2007] provides three forms (UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32) and seven schemes (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16 BE, UTF-16 LE, UTF-32, UTF-32 LE, and UTF-32 BE).

User Datagram Protocol (UDP): The connectionless protocol within TCP/IP that corresponds to the transport layer in the ISO/OSI reference model.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.