The FREE Cybersecurity Glossary by Thor Pedersen!

Anything as a Service (XaaS): A broad term that refers to the growing trend of delivering various services and applications over the Internet rather than through on-premises installations or traditional software licensing. This can include software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), as well as numerous other specialized offerings. By leveraging cloud-based delivery models, XaaS providers can offer scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions that cater to the diverse needs of businesses and end-users.

Application Software Tracing and Mapping: A process of analyzing and visualizing the behavior and structure of software applications. It helps in understanding the flow and interdependencies within an application, aiding in the detection of vulnerabilities, bottlenecks, or inefficiencies. Given the complexity of modern applications, tracing and mapping can be essential tools for maintaining application performance and security.

Assembler: A type of computer program that interprets software programs written in assembly language into machine language, code, and instructions that can be executed by a computer. The assembler enables the translation of human-readable assembly language into the computer's binary code. It is often used when direct hardware manipulation, maximum efficiency, or compact code size is required.

Assembly Language: A low-level programming language for a computer or other programmable device in which there is a very strong correspondence between the language and the architecture's machine code instructions. Each assembly language is specific to a particular computer architecture, in contrast to high-level programming languages, which are generally portable across multiple systems. Assembly language is used in reverse engineering and malware analysis, as it provides more direct control of system processes.

Authentication Header (AH): A protocol used in internet security to authenticate the sender of a message and ensure data integrity. It is part of the Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) suite, providing packet-level authentication for secure communications over IP networks. However, AH does not encrypt the data.

Authentication Server (AS) (in Kerberos): In the Kerberos network authentication protocol, the Authentication Server is a key component that provides the initial verification of a principal's (user or service) credentials. When a principal attempts to authenticate, it communicates with the AS, which checks the provided information against a database of users. If the credentials are valid, the AS issues a Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) encapsulated within a message that can only be decrypted by the principal's secret key. The TGT is then used to request access to other network services without resending the principal's credentials, improving security and efficiency. The AS's role is crucial in establishing a trusted basis for further secure communications within the Kerberos-protected network environment.