[cperciva]

KDFs are a bit of a back-alley in crypto research, and that's the only place the term exists.

The term 'salt' also appears in the definition of the PSS signing scheme. And in the HAIFA hash framework. And in some disk encryption schemes.

in reality, people talking about "salts" are almost invariably distorting and tangling themselves up in silliness when they really ought to be taking PBKDF2 off the shelf and getting on with their lives.

Sure. But I maintain that 'salt' is a good word whose reputation has been ruined by the idiots who use it, rather than being inherently a bad word. :-)

[tptacek]

The term "salt" appears only in RSA's web-based tech reports on PSS; the actual Rogaway paper calls them "seeds".

Have to concede Biham's HAIFA paper to you.

[cperciva]

The term "salt" appears only in RSA's web-based tech reports on PSS

Fair enough. But let's face it, people RFC 3447, not the original paper.