PSK
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | Pre-shared key |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
PSK stands for Pre-shared key, a networking abbreviation.
A secret, usually a passphrase, configured on both sides of a connection in advance rather than exchanged through certificates or individual accounts. Home Wi-Fi in WPA2-Personal mode and many small-office VPN tunnels authenticate this way.
Example: The site-to-site tunnel uses a PSK; rotate it whenever an administrator leaves.
Usage notes
Router menus often label WPA2-Personal as "WPA2-PSK". A shared key is easy to deploy but impossible to revoke for one person, because everyone holds the same secret. Strong PSKs should be long and random, since captured handshakes allow offline guessing. In radio engineering PSK means phase-shift keying, a modulation method unrelated to passwords.
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- PDU – Protocol data unit
- PoE – Power over Ethernet
- PoP – Point of presence
- POP3 – Post Office Protocol version 3
- PPPoE – Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
- PPTP – Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
- PTR – Pointer (record)
- QoS – Quality of service
- QUIC – QUIC (originally Quick UDP Internet Connections)
- rDNS – Reverse DNS
- RDP – Remote Desktop Protocol
- RFC – Request for Comments