Infrastructure & Talos Security Glossary
Game Development & AI Terms
Anti-exploit checks
Techniques and systems for detecting and preventing cheating, abuse, or unintended advantages in a game or application.
Behavior Tree (BT)
Hierarchical model for structuring AI decision logic, using nodes for conditions and actions; widely used for readable, modular NPC behaviors.
Contract-first
Design approach where message formats and service boundaries are defined before implementation, ensuring clear interfaces and maintainability.
Deploys
The act of releasing and updating software or content to production or live environments.
Deterministic core
System design principle where the core logic produces the same output given the same input, improving predictability and testability.
ECS (Entity-Component-System)
Software architecture pattern for games and simulations that organizes data and behavior into entities, components, and systems for flexibility and performance.
Economy design
The creation and balancing of in-game systems for resource generation, exchange, and consumption.
GOAP (Goal-Oriented Action Planning)
AI technique where agents plan sequences of actions to achieve specific goals, enabling flexible and emergent behaviors in games and simulations.
LLM (Large Language Model)
AI model trained on vast text data (like GPT) that can generate, interpret, or influence natural language, often used for dynamic dialogue or decision-making in games.
Network protocol
The set of rules and message formats governing communication between clients and servers in a networked system.
NPC (Non-Player Character)
Game entity controlled by the system rather than a human player, often providing interaction, challenge, or narrative.
Profiling
The process of measuring and analyzing the performance characteristics of software to identify bottlenecks and optimize resource usage.
Session lifecycle
The sequence of states and transitions a user connection undergoes, from authentication to disconnection, in a networked application.
State persistence
Mechanism for saving and restoring the state of a system or game world across sessions or server restarts.
Test harness
Framework or set of tools for running automated tests, including soak and fuzz tests, to validate system behavior and robustness.
World tick
Discrete update cycle in a simulation or game world, during which all entities and systems are advanced in lockstep.
Zero-trust mindset
Security model that assumes no implicit trust between components; enforces strict authentication, authorization, and resource isolation.
Infrastructure & Talos Security Glossary
A shared glossary for posts referencing Talos, Kubernetes bootstrap, and secret management workflows. Keep entries concise (1–2 sentences). When expanding, prefer adding links to authoritative upstream docs.
Core Platform Terms
A shared glossary for posts referencing Talos, Kubernetes bootstrap, and secret management workflows. Keep entries concise (1–2 sentences). When expanding, prefer adding links to authoritative upstream docs.
Bootstrap
Initial process of bringing up the first control plane node with all required cluster secrets and certificates.
Control Plane Node
Node running Kubernetes API server, controller-manager, scheduler, and etcd (or connecting to an external etcd cluster).
GitOps
Operational model where desired cluster/infrastructure state lives in Git and automation reconciles actual state to match.
Machine Configuration (machine config)
Declarative YAML that fully describes a Talos node’s OS, Kubernetes, network, and secret bootstrap state; authoritative at first boot.
Talos
Minimal, API-driven Linux distribution for running Kubernetes; managed via talosctl instead of SSH.
Worker Node
Node running kubelet and user workloads; joins an existing control plane.
Secrets & Cryptography
age
Modern, simple file encryption format/tool based on X25519 key exchange and AEAD symmetric encryption.
age Recipient
Public key (starting with age1) used by SOPS to encrypt a file so that only the holder of the matching private key can decrypt.
Bootstrap / Machine Token
Secret token allowing a node to authenticate during initial join; stale or missing tokens stall bootstrap.
Ciphertext
Encrypted data stored safely in Git.
Cluster CA / etcd CA
Certificate authority pair used to sign API server, etcd, and other intra-cluster certificates.
Drift
Divergence between the declared (Git) state and the actual deployed state.
Encryption at Rest (Kubernetes)
Optional encryption of sensitive Kubernetes resources (e.g., Secrets) stored in etcd via an EncryptionConfiguration.
Just-in-Time Decryption
Pattern of decrypting secrets only immediately before use, minimizing exposure window.
Key Rotation
Process of replacing one or more encryption or signing keys, re-encrypting data, and redeploying without service disruption.
Plaintext
Decrypted secret material; should exist only ephemerally during validation or talosctl apply.
Service Account Signing Key
Private key used by the API server to sign Kubernetes service account tokens; rotation impacts in-flight tokens.
SOPS
Tool for encrypting structured files (YAML/JSON) while preserving merge-friendly plaintext for non-secret fields when configured; supports multiple key backends (age, PGP, KMS, GCP KMS, Azure Key Vault).
sops.yaml
Repository policy file defining which recipients (keys) encrypt which file paths or patterns.
Tooling & Automation
Build Artifact (Sensitive)
Generated plaintext file produced during rendering/merge steps; should be avoided or destroyed immediately.
CI Validation
Automated pipeline step that decrypts (in memory) and validates Talos configs (schema, required fields) before deployment.
Inline Templating (Anti-Pattern Here)
Replacing placeholders in base configs (e.g., via envsubst) prior to apply; brittle compared to encrypting the authoritative file.
Pre-commit Hook
Local Git hook enforcing checks (lint, secret scanning) before commit creation.
Secret Scanning
Automated detection of high-risk plaintext patterns (API keys, tokens) in commits/PRs to prevent accidental leaks.
Operational Concepts
Break-Glass Procedure
Documented emergency process granting temporary elevated access (e.g., to encryption keys) with audit logging.
Least Privilege
Security principle restricting key and secret access strictly to what each role needs.
Observability of Secrets Workflow
Logging/metrics around decryption events, failed validations, and key usage to detect anomalies.
Last updated: 2025-10-09