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Adding PIN code as an example of a shared secret. |
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{{Short description|Computer password or cryptographic key}}
{{for|methods where a secret is divided into several parts|secret sharing}}
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In [[cryptography]], a '''shared secret''' is a piece of data, known only to the parties involved, in a [[secure communication]]. This usually refers to the [[Key (cryptography)|key]] of a [[Symmetric-key algorithm|symmetric cryptosystem]]. The shared secret can be a [[personal identification number|PIN code]], a [[password]], a [[passphrase]], a big number, or an array of randomly chosen bytes.
The shared secret is either shared beforehand between the communicating parties, in which case it can also be called a [[pre-shared key]], or it is created at the start of the communication session by using a [[key-agreement protocol]], for instance using [[public-key cryptography]] such as [[Diffie–Hellman key exchange|Diffie–Hellman]] or using [[symmetric-key algorithm|symmetric-key cryptography]] such as [[Kerberos (protocol)|Kerberos]].
The shared secret can be used for authentication (for instance when logging
To make unique [[session key|session and message keys]] the shared secret is usually combined with an [[initialization vector]] (IV). An example of this is the [[derived unique key per transaction]] method.
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