Pre-Shared Key

Definitions

1. A secret key known to all participating parties in advance and used for authentication or encryption, commonly in VPNs and WPA/WPA2-Personal wireless networks. Pre-shared keys are simple to deploy, but they become risky at scale because compromise of one shared secret can affect many users or devices.

   In plain English: A shared secret key distributed to participants before they connect.

   Example: "The guest network used a pre-shared key, but the corporate SSID moved to certificate-based authentication to avoid shared-secret sprawl."

Related Terms

• Encryption Key Management
• Envelope Encryption
• Ephemeral Key
• Hardware Security Module
• Key Ceremony
• Key Derivation
• Key Escrow
• Key Recovery
• Key Server
• Keystore
• Rogue Access Point