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Global Accelerated Learning • Est. 1999
Glossary Term Key Derivation Function (KDF)

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What is Key Derivation Function (KDF)?

A Key Derivation Function KDF derives secret keys from passwords or shared secrets using algorithms like PBKDF2, Argon2, scrypt, and HKDF.

Glossary > Cryptography & PKI > Key Derivation Function (KDF)

Understanding Key Derivation Function (KDF)

A Key Derivation Function KDF is a cryptographic algorithm that derives one or more secret keys from a source of keying material such as a password, master key, or shared secret. Password-based KDFs like PBKDF2, bcrypt, scrypt, and Argon2 deliberately add computational cost and salt to resist brute-force and rainbow-table attacks. Other KDFs, such as HKDF defined in RFC 5869, expand and extract entropy to produce keys suitable for protocols like TLS.

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