KEY PROTECTING METHOD AND APPARATUS

摘要

The present invention provides a key protecting method. The plain text of a private key in an asymmetric algorithm is dynamically decrypted by setting a symmetric master key for each core of a multi-core processor, and by using TSX (Transactional Synchronization Extensions) extended instructions of Intel, it is ensured at a hardware level that the private key and intermediate variables used in the computing process only exist in a cache memory occupied by the core, so that it is prevented that an attacker steals private key information directly from the physical memory, and therefore the security of the public key cipher algorithm implemented in a computer system environment is ensured; moreover, even if the operation system is breached and the attacker can directly read the key memory space, since the TSX mechanism of Intel ensures the atomicity of memory operations, the attacker can not obtain the plain text of the private key. In such solution, other cores of the multi-core processor can also perform cipher computing while resisting physical attacks and system attacks, and the computing efficiency is improved.