Open AccessINTEGRATION OF HARDWARE SECURITY MODULES INTO A DEEPLY EMBEDDED TLS STACK
Author(s) -
Oliver Kehret,
Andreas Walz,
Axel Sikora
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
computing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.184
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 2312-5381
pISSN - 1727-6209
DOI - 10.47839/ijc.15.1.827
Subject(s) - computer science , cryptographic protocol , cryptography , protocol stack , transport layer security , embedded system , secure communication , cryptographic primitive , protocol (science) , implementation , application layer , communications security , communications protocol , the internet , computer security , computer network , computer hardware , wireless sensor network , encryption , operating system , software , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , programming language
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is a well-established standard for securing communication over insecure communication links, offering layer-4 VPN functionality. In the classical Internet TLS is widely used. With the advances of the Internet of Things (IoT) there is an increasing need to secure communication on resource-constrained embedded devices. On these devices, computation of complex cryptographic algorithms is difficult. Additionally, sensor nodes are physically exposed to attackers. Cryptographic acceleration and secure hardware security modules (HSMs) are possible solutions to these challenges. The usage of specialized cryptographic modules for TLS is not a new phenomenon. However, there are still few hardware security modules suitable for the use on microcontrollers in sensor networks. We therefore present an overview of HSM and TLS solutions along with sample implementations and share some recommendations how to combine both.