An FPGA-based key-store for improving the dependability of security services

Abstract

A key-store is a facility for storing sensitive information, most typically the keys of a cryptographic application which provides a security service. In this paper, we present a hardware implemented key-store, which allows secure storage and high performance retrieval of RSA keys. Since RSA is the most widely adopted standard for cryptographic keys, our key-store can be effectively used to improve the dependability of a wide class of security services. Tfie device is implemented on top of a commercial off the shelf (COTS) programmable hardware board, namely a Celoxica RCWOO mounting a Xilinx Virtex-E 2000 FPGA part. We describe the architecture of the hardware device, illustrate the organization of the associated device driver, and evaluate the security and performance gain which can be achieved by integrating our device in real-world applications.