APPARATUS FOR KEY MANAGEMENT IN A SECURE CRYPTOGRAPHIC FACILITY

摘要

A secure cryptographic facility is disclosed of the type having a first secure boundary (15). A control mechanism (50) within the first secure boundary controls the use of cryptographic keys in accordance with control vectors which are cryptographically bound thereto. The facility comprises a module (20) having a second secure boundary (25) and within the second secure boundary: means (30) to store a secret key; decryption logic for decrypting a data key using the secret key; and logic for performing a cryptographic algorithm using the data key. The control mechanism and the module are arranged to pass to one another on an input/output path passing through the second secure boundary a data key in an encrypted form such that the encrypted data key can only be decrypted using the secret key. The control mechanism being arranged to control the use of the data key in accordance with a control vector which is cryptographically bound to be encrypted data key. This enables a structural separation to be maintained between a component responsible for performing cryptographic algorithms and other parts of the facility so that the functions required of the component responsible for performing the cryptographic algorithms are kept to a minimum.