1.1 Glossary
This document uses the following terms:
application pool: A collection of one or more processes hosting zero or more web applications.
base64 encoding: A binary-to-text encoding scheme whereby an arbitrary sequence of bytes is converted to a sequence of printable ASCII characters, as described in [RFC4648].
certificate: A certificate is a collection of attributes and extensions that can be stored persistently. The set of attributes in a certificate can vary depending on the intended usage of the certificate. A certificate securely binds a public key to the entity that holds the corresponding private key. A certificate is commonly used for authentication and secure exchange of information on open networks, such as the Internet, extranets, and intranets. Certificates are digitally signed by the issuing certification authority (CA) and can be issued for a user, a computer, or a service. The most widely accepted format for certificates is defined by the ITU-T X.509 version 3 international standards. For more information about attributes and extensions, see [RFC3280] and [X509] sections 7 and 8.
certificate chain: A sequence of certificates, where each certificate in the sequence is signed by the subsequent certificate. The last certificate in the chain is normally a self-signed certificate.
certificate store: A database of certificates, or certificates and the accompanying private key. Used to store a variety of certificates with different attributes or constraints.
class identifier (CLSID): A GUID that identifies a software component; for instance, a DCOM object class or a COM class.
cleartext: In cryptography, cleartext is the form of a message (or data) that is transferred or stored without cryptographic protection.
decryption: In cryptography, the process of transforming encrypted information to its original clear text form.
Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM): The Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) specification that defines how components communicate over networks, as specified in [MS-DCOM].
dynamic endpoint: A network-specific server address that is requested and assigned at run time. For more information, see [C706].
encryption: In cryptography, the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge.
endpoint: A network-specific address of a remote procedure call (RPC) server process for remote procedure calls. The actual name and type of the endpoint depends on the RPC protocol sequence that is being used. For example, for RPC over TCP (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_ip_tcp), an endpoint might be TCP port 1025. For RPC over Server Message Block (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_np), an endpoint might be the name of a named pipe. For more information, see [C706].
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).
Interface Definition Language (IDL): The International Standards Organization (ISO) standard language for specifying the interface for remote procedure calls. For more information, see [C706] section 4.
Internet Information Services (IIS): The services provided in Windows implementation that support web server functionality. IIS consists of a collection of standard Internet protocol servers such as HTTP and FTP in addition to common infrastructures that are used by other Microsoft Internet protocol servers such as SMTP, NNTP, and so on. IIS has been part of the Windows operating system in some versions and a separate install package in others. IIS version 5.0 shipped as part of Windows 2000 operating system, IIS version 5.1 as part of Windows XP operating system, IIS version 6.0 as part of Windows Server 2003 operating system, and IIS version 7.0 as part of Windows Vista operating system and Windows Server 2008 operating system.
Internet protocol server instance (server instance): A configuration collection for an Internet protocol server that will establish its own network protocol endpoint. A single Internet protocol server can configure multiple server instances that would each appear to clients as an independent host site.
key exchange key pair: A public/private key pair used to encrypt session keys so that they can be safely stored and exchanged with other users.
key exchange private key: The private key of the key exchange key pair.
key exchange public key: The public key of a key exchange key pair.
man in the middle (MITM): An attack that deceives a server or client into accepting an unauthorized upstream host as the actual legitimate host. Instead, the upstream host is an attacker's host that is manipulating the network so that the attacker's host appears to be the desired destination. This enables the attacker to decrypt and access all network traffic that would go to the legitimate host. The attacker is able to read, insert, and modify at-will messages between two hosts without either party knowing that the link between them is compromised.
MD5 hash: A hashing algorithm, as described in [RFC1321], that was developed by RSA Data Security, Inc. An MD5 hash is used by the File Replication Service (FRS) to verify that a file on each replica member is identical.
metabase: The name of the configuration storage implemented by Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).
Microsoft Management Console (MMC): Provides a framework that consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) and a programming platform in which snap-ins (collections of administrative tools) can be created, opened, and saved. MMC is a multiple-document interface (MDI) application.
Network Data Representation (NDR): A specification that defines a mapping from Interface Definition Language (IDL) data types onto octet streams. NDR also refers to the runtime environment that implements the mapping facilities (for example, data provided to NDR). For more information, see [MS-RPCE] and [C706] section 14.
object: In the DCOM protocol, a software entity that implements one or more object remote protocol (ORPC) interfaces and which is uniquely identified, within the scope of an object exporter, by an object identifier (OID). For more information, see [MS-DCOM].
object identifier (OID): In the context of a directory service, a number identifying an object class or attribute. Object identifiers are issued by the ITU and form a hierarchy. An OID is represented as a dotted decimal string (for example, "1.2.3.4"). For more information on OIDs, see [X660] and [RFC3280] Appendix A. OIDs are used to uniquely identify certificate templates available to the certification authority (CA). Within a certificate, OIDs are used to identify standard extensions, as described in [RFC3280] section 4.2.1.x, as well as non-standard extensions.
opnum: An operation number or numeric identifier that is used to identify a specific remote procedure call (RPC) method or a method in an interface. For more information, see [C706] section 12.5.2.12 or [MS-RPCE].
private key: One of a pair of keys used in public-key cryptography. The private key is kept secret and is used to decrypt data that has been encrypted with the corresponding public key. For an introduction to this concept, see [CRYPTO] section 1.8 and [IEEE1363] section 3.1.
public key: One of a pair of keys used in public-key cryptography. The public key is distributed freely and published as part of a digital certificate. For an introduction to this concept, see [CRYPTO] section 1.8 and [IEEE1363] section 3.1.
RC4: Means Rivest Cipher 4 invented by Ron Rivest in 1987 for RSA Security. It is a variable key-length symmetric encryption algorithm stream cipher that operates on a stream of data byte by byte. It's simple to apply, does not consume more memory, and works quickly on very large pieces of data such as WEP/WPA for wireless network encryption and SSL/ TLS for internet security. RC4 stream ciphers cannot be implemented on small streams of data. RC4 weaknesses make it vulnerable to various cryptographic attacks. For more information, see [SCHNEIER] section 17.1.
relative distinguished name (RDN): As specified in [X500], the portion of a distinguished name that is unique to an organization unit but might not be unique inside a domain.
remote procedure call (RPC): A communication protocol used primarily between client and server. The term has three definitions that are often used interchangeably: a runtime environment providing for communication facilities between computers (the RPC runtime); a set of request-and-response message exchanges between computers (the RPC exchange); and the single message from an RPC exchange (the RPC message). For more information, see [C706].
Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA): A system for public key cryptography. RSA is specified in [RFC8017].
RPC protocol sequence: A character string that represents a valid combination of a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol, a network layer protocol, and a transport layer protocol, as described in [C706] and [MS-RPCE].
RSA public key algorithm: A key exchange and signature algorithm based on the popular RSA Public Key cipher.
secure session: An active communication channel that has associated cryptographic keys and possibly other state.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): A security protocol that supports confidentiality and integrity of messages in client and server applications that communicate over open networks. SSL supports server and, optionally, client authentication using X.509 certificates [X509] and [RFC5280]. SSL is superseded by Transport Layer Security (TLS). TLS version 1.0 is based on SSL version 3.0 [SSL3].
server: A computer on which the remote procedure call (RPC) server is executing.
session key: A relatively short-lived symmetric key (a cryptographic key negotiated by the client and the server based on a shared secret). A session key's lifespan is bounded by the session to which it is associated. A session key has to be strong enough to withstand cryptanalysis for the lifespan of the session.
signature private key: The private key of a signature key pair.
signature public key: The public key of a signature key pair.
signed hash: A hash signed with a signature private key.
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).
universally unique identifier (UUID): A 128-bit value. UUIDs can be used for multiple purposes, from tagging objects with an extremely short lifetime, to reliably identifying very persistent objects in cross-process communication such as client and server interfaces, manager entry-point vectors, and RPC objects. UUIDs are highly likely to be unique. UUIDs are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) and these terms are used interchangeably in the Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the UUID. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] has to be used for generating the UUID.
web application: A collection of URLs that share a server execution environment. This collection is defined relative to a root URL. A web application runs in response to HTTP requests for the URLs in the collection. The process or processes that run in response to such an HTTP request are termed the application host.
well-known endpoint: A preassigned, network-specific, stable address for a particular client/server instance. For more information, see [C706].
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.