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Abstract - Security Symposium - 2000
An Open-source Cryptographic Coprocessor
Peter Gutmann, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract
Current crypto implementations rely on software running under general-purpose
operating systems alongside a horde of untrusted applications, ActiveX
controls, web browser plugins, mailers handling messages with embedded active
content, and numerous other threats to security, with only the OSŐs (often
almost nonexistant) security to keep the two apart. This paper presents a
general-purpose open-source crypto coprocessor capable of securely performing
crypto operations such as key management, certificate creation and handling,
and email encryption, decryption, and signing, at a cost one to two orders of
magnitude below that of commercial equivalents while providing generally
equivalent performance and a higher level of functionality. The paper examines
various issues involved in designing the coprocessor, and explores options for
hardware acceleration of crypto operations for extended performance above and
beyond that offered by the basic coprocessor's COTS hardware.
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