Protecting application private keys with remote and local security controllers

Abstract

A remote security controller (RSC) generates a private key for a client application on a different host computing device and splits the private key into a first fragment and a second fragment. The first fragment, but not the second fragment, is encrypted using a symmetric key. The split private key is returned to the different host computing device. A local security controller (LSC) on the different host computing device is able to derive the symmetric key using a key agreement protocol with the RSC. When the client application needs to digitally sign a data value with the split private key, the client application generates a first partial Multiparty Computation (MPC) signature using the second fragment. The LSC generates a second partial MPC signature with the first fragment, which has been decrypted using the symmetric key. The first and second partial MPC signatures are combinable to digitally sign the data value.