Broadcom Corporation

Avago Technologies General IP (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Zheng Qi

Mark Leonard Buer

Ronald Squires

Joseph John Tardo

Meg Pei Lin

Jianjun Luo

Don Matthews

Yongbum Kim

Patrick Y Law

David K Chin

Uri Elzur

Nicholas Ilyadis

Timothy R Paaske

Bora Akyol

Tao Long

Ford Tamer

A method and system for secure and scalable key management for cryptographic processing of data is described herein. A method of secure key handling and cryptographic processing of data, comprising receiving a request from an entity to cryptographically process a block of data, the request including a key handle, wherein the key handle includes an authentication tag and an index; authenticating the requesting entity using the authentication tag; and referencing a plaintext key from a plurality of plaintext keys using the index if the requesting entity is authenticated successfully.

Scalable and secure key management for cryptographic data processing

Methods and systems for secure key generation are provided. In embodiments, during the manufacturing process, a device generates a primary seed for the device and stores the seed within the device. The device exports the device primary key to a secure manufacturer server. The secure manufacturer server generates a public/private root key for the device and requests a certificate for the public root key of the device from a certificate authority. The device, having the stored primary seed, is integrated into an end-user system. Upon occurrence of a condition, the device after integration into the end-user system generates the public/private root key in the field. The system also receives and installs the certificate for the public root key.

Secure generation of a device root key in the field

A method and system for secure and scalable key management for cryptographic processing of data is described herein. In the method, a General Purpose Cryptographic Engine (GPE) receives key material via a secure channel from a key server and stores the received Key encryption keys (KEKs) and/or plain text keys in a secure key cache. When a request is received from a host to cryptographically process a block of data, the requesting entity is authenticated using an authentication tag included in the request. The GPE retrieves a plaintext key or generate a plaintext using a KEK if the authentication is successful, cryptographically processes the data using the plaintext key and transmits the processed data. The system includes a key server that securely provides encrypted keys and/or key handles to a host and key encryption keys and/or plaintext keys to the GPE.

A side channel attack utilizes information gained from the physical implementation of a cryptosystem. Software and hardware-based systems and methods for preventing side channel attacks are presented. Cryptographic hardware may introduce dummy operations to compensate for conditional math operations in certain functions such as modular exponentiation. Cryptographic hardware may also introduce random stalls of the data path to introduce alterations in the power profile for the operation. A cryptographic function may be mapped to a micro code sequence having a plurality of instructions. Firmware in the cryptosystem may alter the micro code sequence by altering the order of instructions, add dummy operations in the micro code sequence, break the micro code sequence into multiple sub micro code sequences and/or change the register location for source and destination operands used in the sequence. These alterations are designed to randomly change the timing and power profile of the requested function.

System and methods for side-channel attack prevention

Aspects of a method and system for determining and securing proximity information over a network are provided. In this regard, data transmitted over a network may be time-stamped upon entering and/or exiting a network node. By taking the total time to travel between two network nodes and subtracting out any latency internal to one or more intermediate nodes, the time to traverse the physical links (the propagation time) between the two network nodes may be determined. Accordingly, if the speed at which data propagates over each link of the network is known, then a distance from the source node to the destination node may be determined. Additionally, aspects of the invention may enable one or more of authentication, validation, and encryption of timing and/or proximity information transmitted over a network.

Method and system for determining and securing proximity information over a network

According to one general aspect, a method of using a network device may include receiving, via an ingress port, a data packet that includes a payload portion, a source network address and a destination network address. In various embodiments, the method may also include determining if the data packet includes a security tag that includes a role based authentication tag. In some embodiments, the method may include, if the data packet includes a security tag that includes a role based authentication tag, transmitting, via an egress port, at least the payload portion and the role based authentication tag towards, in a topological sense, the destination network address.

Preserving security association in MACsec protected network through VLAN mapping

Methods and apparatus are provided for implementing a cryptography accelerator for performing operations such as hash operations. The cryptography accelerator recognizes characteristics associated with input data and retrieves an instruction set for processing the input data. The instruction set is used to configure or control components such as MD5 and SHA-1 hash cores, XOR components, memory, etc. By providing a cryptography accelerator with access to multiple instruction sets, a variety of hash operations can be performed in a configurable cryptographic accelerator.

Methods and apparatus performing hash operations in a cryptography accelerator

A networking method, microchip, and device are described in which a first security engine may be associated with a chaining port and configured to perform an inner processing for an inner layer of encryption for a frame of data, while a second security engine may be associated with an external port and configured to perform an outer processing for an outer layer of encryption for the frame of data. Control logic may be configured to instruct the first security engine to execute both a transmit operation and a receive operation of the frame of data in association with the inner processing.

Chaining port scheme for network security

An architecture and associated methods and devices are described in which a first selectable data path may be associated with a first port operating at a first data rate, a second selectable data path may be associated with a second port operating at a second data rate, and a third selectable data path may be associated with a third port operating at a third data rate that is higher than the first data rate and the second data rate. A plurality of security engines may be included which may be configurable to provide cipher key-based security for data associated with the first port and the second port using the first selectable path and the second selectable path, respectively, and configurable to provide cipher key-based security of data associated with the third port using the third selectable data path.

Multi-data rate security architecture for network security

Provided is an architecture (hardware implementation) for an authentication engine to increase the speed at which multi-loop and/or multi-round authentication algorithms may be performed on data packets transmitted over a computer network. Authentication engines in accordance with the present invention apply a variety of techniques that may include, in various applications, collapsing two multi-round authentication algorithm (e.g., SHA1 or MD5 or variants) processing rounds into one; reducing operational overhead by scheduling the additions required by a multi-round authentication algorithm in such a matter as to reduce the overall critical timing path ('hiding the ads'); and, for a multi-loop (e.g., HMAC) variant of a multi-round authentication algorithm, pipelining the inner and outer loops. In one particular example of applying the invention in an authentication engine using the HMAC-SHA1 algorithm of the IPSec protocol, collapsing of the conventional 80 SHA1 rounds into 40 rounds, hiding the ads, and pipelining the inner and outer loops allows HMAC-SHA1 to be conducted in approximately the same time as conventional SHA1.

Authentication engine architecture and method

An architecture and associated methods and devices are described that include a plurality of stages of cipher round logic, each stage configured to perform cryptographic processing of plaintext data in a counter mode and output ciphertext data, a plurality of multipliers, each multiplier configured to receive the ciphertext data output from at least one associated stage of the plurality of stages of cipher round logic and continue the cryptographic processing to output at least a portion of an integrity check value (ICV), and control logic configured to provide a selection between a first option of performing the cryptographic processing at a first data rate using a first number of the plurality of stages and a first number of the plurality of multipliers, and a second option of performing the cryptographic processing at a second data rate using a second number of the plurality of stages and a second number of the plurality of multipliers.

Multi-data rate cryptography architecture for network security

Aspects of a method and system for securing a network utilizing IPsec and MACsec protocols are provided. In one or more network nodes, aspects of the invention may enable conversion between Ethernet packets comprising payloads secured utilizing IPsec protocols and Ethernet packets secured utilizing MACsec protocols. For example, IPsec connections may be terminated at an ingress network node and IPsec connections may be regenerated at an egress network node. Packets secured utilizing MACsec protocols may be detected based on an Ethertype. Packets comprising payloads secured utilizing IPsec protocols may be detected based on a protocol field or a next header field. The conversion may be based on a data structure stored by and/or accessible to the network nodes. Aspects of the invention may enable securing data utilizing MACsec protocols when tunneling IPsec secured data through non-IPsec enabled nodes.

Method and system for securing a network utilizing IPsec and MACsec protocols

Methods and systems are disclosed for generating random numbers and initial vectors. A random number generator generates one or more random numbers that are used to repetitively seed pseudo random number generators so that the pseudo random number generators generate random numbers. Thus, a single random number generator may be used to simultaneously generate several random numbers. The random numbers generated by the pseudo random number generators may be used as initial vectors in encryption engines.

System and method for generating initial vectors

Methods and apparatus are provided for an entity such as a CPU to efficiently call a cryptography accelerator to perform cryptographic operations. A function call causes the cryptography accelerator to execute multiple cryptographic operations in a manner tailored for specific processing steps, such as steps during a handshake phase of a secured session. The techniques provide efficient use of hardware processing resources, data interfaces, and memory interfaces.

Growing community of inventors

Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Zheng Qi