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Glite Dictionary
🔑 A metal loop 💻 Password storage
key ring

key ring

1 4.1
A secure place on a computer that stores passwords and secret codes for apps and the system
  • noun
  • /kiː rɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : llavero digital
  • Developers used the key ring to store API credentials for service-to-service authentication.

Examples

  • The key ring holds all my passwords securely.

  • After the breach, administrators rotated keys in the key ring and revoked old certificates.

  • The password manager integrates with the system key ring to auto-fill login details.

  • I need to store my credentials on a key ring.

  • You should keep your passwords safe by storing them in a secure key ring application.

  • The key ring on my phone helps me manage all my digital credentials easily.

  • For better security, use a key ring to store your cryptographic keys and passwords.

How Secure

key ring
  • Specialized
1 4.1
hardware
  • Specialized
206 2.7
repository
21 6.7
txt
  • Specialized
3 4.6

Surface Forms

key ring singular
key rings plural
key-rings plural
key-ring singular

Morphology

key + ring

The computing sense is a metaphorical extension of the concrete object 'key ring' that holds physical keys, so a learner who knows 'key' and 'ring' can plausibly infer a place that stores keys — here applied to digital keys. However, the specialized notion of a secure cryptographic repository and the technical implications are domain-specific and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Key ring in computing borrows the picture of a metal ring holding keys: it is a safe place on your computer or phone that keeps digital 'keys' and 'passwords' together. So, the term now means 'a secure store for login details and keys'.