Glossary#

Audience: All Users
Prerequisites: None
Outcome: Understand Kleidia terminology

Terms#

A#

Agent: Local HTTP server running on user workstations for YubiKey operations.

AppRole: Vault authentication method used by backend to authenticate to Vault.

Argon2id: Password hashing algorithm used for secure password storage.

Audit Log: Record of all operations and events in the system for compliance and security.

B#

Backend: Go/Gin REST API server handling authentication, authorization, and Vault integration.

C#

Certificate Authority (CA): Entity that issues and signs certificates. Kleidia uses Vault PKI as CA.

Certificate Signing Request (CSR): Request for certificate signing generated on YubiKey using hardware private key.

CORS: Cross-Origin Resource Sharing, security feature allowing browser to make requests to localhost agent.

D#

Device ID: Unique identifier for YubiKey device (serial number).

E#

Ephemeral Keys: Temporary RSA keypairs generated on agent startup, not persisted to disk.

F#

Frontend: Vue.js 3 with Nuxt.js 4 web application providing user interface.

H#

J#

JWT: JSON Web Token used for user authentication and authorization.

K#

M#

Management Key: Cryptographic key used for PIV operations on YubiKey.

Machine ID: Unique identifier for workstation, used for agent pairing.

O#

OpenBao: OpenBao (Vault fork) used for secrets management and PKI.

P#

PIV: Personal Identity Verification, application on YubiKey for certificate storage.

PKI: Public Key Infrastructure for certificate management.

PIN: Personal Identification Number for YubiKey authentication.

PUK: PIN Unlock Key for recovering locked PIN.

PVC: Persistent Volume Claim for Kubernetes storage.

R#

RSA-OAEP: Encryption algorithm used for encrypting sensitive data before transmission to agent.

RBAC: Role-Based Access Control for user permissions.

S#

Session: User login session with expiration and agent key binding.

StatefulSet: Kubernetes resource for stateful applications like PostgreSQL and Vault.

V#

Vault: OpenBao for secrets management and PKI.

Y#

YubiKey: Hardware security key device for authentication and certificate storage.

ykman: YubiKey Manager CLI tool for YubiKey operations.