Defined term

Ephemeral Key

Ephemeral Key: A cryptographic key that is generated for each execution of a key establishment process and that meets other requirements of the key type…

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Definition

A cryptographic key that is generated for each execution of a key establishment process and that meets other requirements of the key type (e.g., unique to each message or session). In some cases, ephemeral keys are used more than once within a single session (e.g., broadcast applications) where the sender generates only one ephemeral key pair per message, and the private key is combined separately with each recipient’s public key. (SP 800-57 Part 1) (NISTIR)

Sources

1
The Cyber Glossary
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