Trust anchor — in cryptographic systems with hierarchical structure is an authoritative entity for which trust is assumed and not derived.
In X.509 architecture, a root certificate would be the trust anchor from which whole chain of trust is derived. The trust anchor must be in possession of the trusting party beforehand to make any further certificate path validation possible.
In most operating systems, the trust anchor is a collection of X.509 certificates of certification authorities that come preinstalled with the operating system, or is built into an application (such as web browser).
Famous quotes containing the words trust and/or anchor:
“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.”
—Janet Malcolm (b. 1934)
“The daughter of debate, that eke discord doth sow,
Shall reap no gain where former rule hath taught still peace to
grow.
No foreign banished wight shall anchor in this port;
Our realm it brooks no stranger’s force, let them elsewhere resort.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)