Method and apparatus for controlling the configuration of a

Abstract

The capabilities of a cryptographic module are controlled by a crypto configuration control (CCC) register that is initialized by one or more self-signed commands that are preformulated and signed with the digital signature key of the crypto module itself. The crypto module accepts a self-signed command only if the self-signature can be validated using the signature verification key of the module. In one implementation, the final configuration is determined by a single self-signed command. In another implementation, a first self-signed command is used to create an temporary configuration that allows one or more initialization authorities to issue additional commands fixing the final configuration. The self-signed commands are maintained separately from the crypto module and are distributed to the end user either physically or electronically. After the self-signed commands have been created and the secret exponent has been embedded in a particular crypto module, all copies of the secret exponent external to the crypto module are destroyed.