Protocols Glossary

Browse 44 protocols terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

44 Protocols Terms

Anti-Replay
Intended to prevent replay attacks, where a valid captured message or credential is resent later to fraudulently repeat an action. Anti-replay protections...
ARP
Address Resolution Protocol — a Layer 2 protocol that maps IP addresses to MAC (hardware) addresses on a local network. When a device needs to send a packet to...
Authentication Protocol
A formal method or protocol used to verify identity and establish trust between parties, such as Kerberos, OAuth flows, or certificate-based schemes. The...
BGP
Border Gateway Protocol — the routing protocol that glues the internet together by enabling autonomous systems (ISPs, cloud providers, enterprises) to exchange...
Binary Protocol
A communication protocol that encodes messages as binary structures instead of human-readable text. Binary protocols often trade easier debugging for better...
Chat Protocol
The message format and interaction rules used by a chat system to exchange messages, typing indicators, read receipts, presence, and other conversation events....
Cipher Suite
Cipher Suite is the negotiated set of cryptographic algorithms and parameters used by a secure communication session. Security teams use it to enforce trust,...
Communication Protocol
A Communication Protocol is a development concept used to shape how software is built, executed, or maintained in real systems. Developers rely on it to make...
Connection Manager
A Connection Manager is a development concept used to shape how software is built, executed, or maintained in real systems. Developers rely on it to make code...
Connection String
A Connection String is a development concept used to shape how software is built, executed, or maintained in real systems. Developers rely on it to make code...
Cross-Protocol Attack
An attack that exploits unexpected interactions between different protocols or between data intended for one protocol and another system that interprets it...
Cryptographic Nonce
Cryptographic Nonce is a value intended to be unique per operation so cryptographic protocols can prevent replay and key-stream reuse. Security teams use it to...
Cryptographic Primitive
Cryptographic Primitive is a low-level building block such as a cipher, hash, MAC, or signature algorithm used inside larger protocols. Security teams use it...
Cryptographic Protocol
A protocol that uses cryptographic operations to achieve goals such as confidentiality, authentication, key exchange, or integrity. Even strong primitives can...
Custom Protocol
A communication protocol designed for a specific application or environment rather than using a standard protocol unchanged. Custom protocols can optimize for...
DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol — the protocol that automatically assigns IP addresses and network settings to devices when they join a network. Without...
Handshake
A Handshake is a development concept used to shape how software is built, executed, or maintained in real systems. Developers rely on it to make code easier to...
Header Analysis
The inspection of protocol or file headers to understand origin, routing, structure, or manipulation. In practice it often refers to reviewing email headers,...
ICMP
Internet Control Message Protocol — a network protocol used for diagnostic and error-reporting purposes. ICMP is the backbone of tools like ping and...
Jabber
The older common name associated with the XMPP messaging protocol and ecosystem. In internet history and open-protocol culture, Jabber represents an era of...
Key Agreement
Key Agreement is a cryptographic method that lets parties derive a shared secret without sending that secret directly. Security teams use it to enforce trust,...
Key Exchange
Key Exchange is the protocol step through which parties establish shared keying material for secure communication. Security teams use it to enforce trust,...
Language Server
A tool that provides editor features such as autocomplete, diagnostics, go-to-definition, and refactoring support through the Language Server Protocol or...
Legacy Protocol
An older communication protocol that remains in use for compatibility but often lacks modern security properties such as strong encryption, mutual...
Matrix Protocol
An open standard for decentralized real-time communication used for chat, rooms, and federation across servers.
MCP Server
A server that exposes tools, resources, or structured capabilities through the Model Context Protocol so AI clients can use external context safely and...
Message Format
The defined structure and encoding of data exchanged between systems, specifying field names, types, ordering, and serialization rules. Common message formats...
Message Protocol
A set of rules governing how messages are framed, sequenced, acknowledged, and error-handled between communicating parties. Encompasses both the wire format...
Model Context Protocol
An open protocol for connecting models to external tools, resources, and prompts through a consistent interface.
MTU
Maximum Transmission Unit — the largest packet size (in bytes) that a network link can transmit without fragmentation. Standard Ethernet MTU is 1500 bytes....
Mutual Authentication
Mutual Authentication is authentication in which each communicating party verifies the identity of the other. Security teams use it to enforce trust, reduce...
Null Cipher
A cipher or negotiated mode that applies no real encryption to data even though the surrounding protocol may still look like it is using a cryptographic...
Open Protocol
A protocol whose specification is openly available and can be implemented by multiple independent parties. In internet culture, open protocols are associated...
packet
A formatted unit of data transmitted across a network, containing both a header (with source/destination addresses, sequence numbers, and protocol information)...
Packet Replay
The retransmission of previously captured packets or messages in order to repeat, confuse, or bypass a protocol exchange. Packet replay is effective when the...
Protocol Analysis
The examination of how a communication protocol behaves in practice, including message structure, state transitions, authentication, and error handling....
Protocol Fuzzing
Fuzz testing aimed at network or file protocols by sending malformed, unexpected, or state-breaking inputs to parsers and implementations. Protocol fuzzing is...
Protocol Security
The security properties and protections of a communication protocol, including authentication, confidentiality, integrity, replay resistance, and downgrade...
Protocol Vulnerability
A weakness in a protocol's design or implementation that can be exploited to bypass trust, leak data, disrupt service, or manipulate communications. Protocol...
Replay Prevention
The design features and controls that stop previously valid messages, tokens, or requests from being reused successfully by an attacker. Replay prevention...
server-sent events
A simple, one-directional protocol where the server pushes updates to the browser over a persistent HTTP connection using a text-based event stream. Simpler...
Transport
The network layer or mechanism responsible for reliably (or unreliably) moving data between endpoints — most commonly referring to TCP or UDP at OSI Layer 4,...
USB Protocol
The layered communication protocol defined by the Universal Serial Bus specification, governing how hosts enumerate, configure, and exchange data with...
XMPP
An open messaging and presence protocol used for chat systems and federated communication networks.

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