Compact security certificate

1. An Integrated Circuit (IC), comprising:

an on-chip non-volatile memory (NVM), configured to store a representation of a device-specific part of an entire security certificate assigned to the IC, together with a signature computed over the entire security certificate, wherein the entire security certificate consists of the device-specific part and a common part that is not stored in the on-chip NVM; and

an on-chip processor, configured to obtain the common part of the security certificate, to reconstruct the security certificate from the obtained common part and from the representation of the device-specific part stored in the on-chip NVM, and to perform a security operation on data using the reconstructed security certificate.

2. The IC according to claim 1 , wherein the representation comprises a compressed form of the device-specific part of the security certificate, and wherein the on-chip processor is configured to decompress the representation of the device-specific part.

3. The IC according to claim 1 , wherein the on-chip processor is configured to verify the reconstructed security certificate using the signature stored in the on-chip NVM.

4. A certificate-signing server, comprising:

an interface for communicating with an Integrated Circuit (IC) having an on-chip non-volatile memory (NVM); and

a processor, configured to receive from the IC at least a public key, to create an entire security certificate for the IC, to partition the entire security certificate into a device-specific part that is specific to the IC and a common part that is not specific to the IC, to compute a signature over the entire security certificate, and to send to the IC less than the entire security certificate, but at least a representation of the device-specific part together with the computed signature for storage in the on-chip NVM.

5. The certificate-signing server according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to receive the public key from the IC, and to sign the certificate using the public key.

6. The certificate-signing server according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to produce the representation by compressing the device-specific part.

7. A certificate-signing server, comprising:

an interface for communicating with an Integrated Circuit (IC) having an on-chip non-volatile memory (NVM); and

a processor, configured to generate a pair of public and private keys, to create an entire security certificate for the IC, to partition the entire security certificate into a device-specific part that is specific to the IC and a common part that is not specific to the IC, to compute a signature over the entire security certificate, and to send to the IC less than the entire security certificate, but at least a representation of the device-specific part together with the computed signature for storage in the on-chip NVM.

8. The certificate-signing server according to claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to sign the certificate using the private key.

9. The certificate-signing server according to claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to produce the representation by compressing the device-specific part.

10. A method, comprising:

storing, in an on-chip non-volatile memory (NVM) in an Integrated Circuit (IC), a representation of a device-specific part of an entire security certificate assigned to the IC, together with a signature computed over the entire security certificate, wherein the entire security certificate consists of the device-specific part and a common part that is not stored in the on-chip NVM; and

using an on-chip processor in the IC, obtaining the common part of the security certificate, reconstructing the security certificate from the obtained common part and from the representation of the device-specific part stored in the on-chip NVM, and performing a security operation using the reconstructed security certificate.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the representation comprises a compressed form of the device-specific part of the security certificate, and wherein reconstructing the security certificate comprises decompressing the representation of the device-specific part.

12. The method according to claim 10 , and comprising verifying the reconstructed security certificate by the on-chip processor using the signature stored in the on-chip NVM.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving from an Integrated Circuit (IC) at least a public key;

creating an entire security certificate for the IC;

partitioning the entire security certificate into a device-specific part that is specific to the IC and a common part that is not specific to the IC;

computing a signature over the entire security certificate; and

sending to the IC less than the entire security certificate, but at least a representation of the device-specific part together with the computed signature for storage in an on-chip non-volatile memory (NVM).

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein computing the signature comprises signing the certificate using a private key.

15. The method according to claim 13 , and comprising producing the representation by compressing the device-specific part.

16. A method, comprising:

generating a pair of public and private keys;

creating an entire security certificate for an integrated circuit (IC);

partitioning the entire security certificate into a device-specific part that is specific to the IC and a common part that is not specific to the IC;

computing a signature over the entire security certificate; and

sending to the IC less than the entire security certificate, but at least a representation of the device-specific part together with the computed signature for storage in an on-chip non-volatile memory (NVM).

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein computing the signature comprises signing the certificate using the private key.

18. The method according to claim 16 , and comprising producing the representation by compressing the device-specific part.