Key Management System-KMS

The secret sauce of all cryptographic systems is the Key Management System...

Cryptographic Key Management (CKM) is a fundamental part of cryptographic technology and is considered one of the most difficult aspects associated with its use. Cryptographic keys are a vital part of any security system. They do everything from data encryption and decryption to user authentication. The compromise of any cryptographic key could lead to the collapse of an organization’s entire security infrastructure, allowing the attacker to decrypt sensitive data, authenticate themselves as privileged users, or give themselves access to other sources of sensitive information. 

"Shannon's theorem (Theorem 4.16, 1949) offers a rigorous proof of the perfect secrecy of Vernam's cipher (Gilbert Vernam, 1917). Algorithm 4.18.

 The tricky bit for any practical solution, is for two parties to 'magically' initialise their random number generators to the same starting point, simultaneously contradicting the term "truly random"...

That’s why, according to Kerckhoffs’s Principle, the only secret element of an encryption algorithm should be the key itself. The objective of the KMS is to provide a zero attack surface as technically and practically possible today, while acknowledging that a zero risk system is impossible, and hence some degree of residual risk must always exist, even if the cryptography is proven secure.

Encryption keys are a fundamental component of the security of cryptographic systems. In order to properly protect your encryption key, you’ll need a key management system. Key generation is the process of generating keys in cryptography. A key is used to encrypt and decrypt Vaulted Objects. A device or program used to generate keys is called a key generator or KG.

The security of the KMS is foundational to the security of the Vaulted Object framework.

THE FRAMEWORK

The vaulted object KMS is a proprietary system protected as a Trade Secret, contained within a hardware protected trust zone. The solution is quantum safe as a brute force attack on the KMS would theoretically imposable, as the KMS is proven secure.

KMS Principles

1.  A cryptosystem should be secure, even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge. This concept is widely embraced by cryptographers, in contrast to security through obscurity, which is not.

2.  There exists no form of key storage within any element of the KMS. All keys are generated on demand using a secure key Generator, with at least 40 years of operational experience with no publicly known vulnerabilities.

3.  All KG seed or keying material travels within a trusted path, and is protected to the same level as any generated key material.

4.  Within the KMS key material is never stored (ever) and always moves external to any key usage channel.

5. There exist no centralised key storage of management system, all keys are generated or regenerated via decentralised KG process.

6. All generated keys have a security policy which requires single usage or at most has an ephemeral existence for the duration of a the vaulting system.

7. All KG's domains are segregated via the use of domain specific universals, there exist no interoperability between KMS domains or KG's.

8. There exist no public key based algorithms used within the KMS, hence deriving private leys from public keys must not be an attack vector for any KMS.