partiallyauthenticated
Partiallyauthenticated is a term used in information security to describe a property of a communication or data element in which only a subset of its components are protected against tampering by cryptographic authentication. In such scenarios, some parts, such as headers or metadata, may be authenticated, while other parts, such as the message body, are not guaranteed to be authentic or integral. This contrasts with fully authenticated systems, where the entire message is protected by a MAC or an authenticated encryption mode.
Partial authentication can arise in protocol design for performance reasons, compatibility, or when different parties have
Security implications: Partially authenticated data remains vulnerable to tampering in unauthenticated components, enabling potential attacks such
Relation to related terms: Fully authenticated data is protected by an authentication mechanism for all parts;
See also: authentication, data integrity, message authentication code, authenticated encryption, associated data.