OPTIMIZED KEY MANAGEMENT FOR DATA SIGNING SYSTEMS

1 . A method of providing security credentials, comprising:

accepting a request to generate at least one key in an online data signing system;

generating, in a hardware security module communicatively coupled to the online data signing system, a first key K 1 as a temporary object;

encrypting, by the hardware security module, the first key K 1 according to a wrapping key Kw to produce an encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ];

storing the encrypted first key;

providing a second key K 2 associated with the first key K 1 to a user device communicatively coupled to the online data signing system;

linking, in the online data signing system, a configuration defined by an administrator to the encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ];

accepting, in the online data signing system, a request from the user device to perform a cryptographic operation on data according to the configuration;

retrieving the encrypted first key from storage;

decrypting, in the hardware security module, the encrypted first key according to the wrapping key Kw to recover the first key K 1 as a further temporary object;

performing a cryptographic operation on the data in the online data signing system according to the first key K 1 ; and

providing a result of the cryptographic operation to the user device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first key K 1 is volitively stored in the hardware security module as a session object.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the first key K 1 is a private key K Pr ; and

the second key K 2 is a public key K pu .

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein:

the public key K pu is generated by the online data signing system at least in part from the private key K Pr .

5 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

generating, in the online data signing system, a digital certificate corresponding to the private key K Pr ; and

providing the public key K Pu to the user device comprises providing the digital certificate having the public key K Pu to the a user device.

6 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

generating a certificate signing request according to the public key K Pu ;

providing the generated certificate signing request from the online data signing system to the an administrator;

receiving a digital certificate from the administrator, the digital certificate procured from a certificate authority in response to the certificate signing request;

associating the received digital certificate with the private key K Pr ; and

storing the received digital certificate.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein:

the digital certificate is uploaded by an administrator to the online data signing system; and

the method further comprises:

linking, in the online data signing system, a configuration defined by the administrator to the digital certificate;

receiving data to be signed from the user device; and

providing a data package having a signature of data and the digital certificate to the user device.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein:

the user device packages a signature of data obtained from the online data signing system together with the received digital certificate generate a signed data image for use by a target client system.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the cryptographic operation performed is a digital signing operation that can be validated using the second key.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the cryptographic operation is an encryption of the data, the encrypted data decryptable using the second key.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the decrypted first key is erased from the hardware security module following the performance of the cryptographic operation.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the decrypted first key K 1 is retained as a temporary object in a volatile memory of the hardware security module following the performance of the cryptographic operation; and

the decrypted first key K 1 retained in volatile memory is reused for further cryptographic operations.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

accepting a request to generate at least one key in an online data signing system comprises:

accepting a request to generate a plurality of keys in the online data signing system;

generating, in a hardware security module communicatively coupled to the online data signing system, a first key K 1 as a temporary object comprises:

generating, in the hardware security module communicatively coupled to the online data signing system, a plurality of first keys (K 1,1 , K 1,2 , . . . K 1,n ) as temporary objects;

encrypting, by the hardware security module, the first key K 1 according to a wrapping key Kw to produce an encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ] comprises:

encrypting, by the hardware security module, each of the plurality of first keys (K 1,1 , K 1,2 , . . . K 1,n ) according to a global wrapping key Kw to produce a plurality of encrypted first keys E Kw [K 1,1 ], E Kw [K 1,2 ,] . . . E Kw [K 1,n ];

storing the encrypted first key comprises:

storing the plurality of encrypted first keys E Kw [K 1,1 ], E Kw [K 1,2 ,] . . . E Kw [K 1,1 ]; and

linking, in the online data signing system, a configuration defined by an administrator to the encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ] comprises:

linking, in the online data signing system, a configuration defined by an administrator to each of the plurality of encrypted first keys E Kw [K 1,1 ], E Kw [K 1,2 ,] . . . E Kw [K 1,n ];

retrieving the encrypted first key from storage comprises:

retrieving the plurality of encrypted first keys E Kw [K 1,1 ], E Kw [K 1,2 ,] . . . E Kw [K 1,n ] from storage;

decrypting, in the hardware security module, the encrypted first key according to the wrapping key Kw to recover the first key K 1 as a further temporary object comprises:

decrypting, in the hardware security module, each encrypted first key E Kw [K 1,1 ], E Kw [K 1,2 ,] . . . E Kw [K 1,1 ] according to the global wrapping key Kw to recover each first key (K 1,1 , K 1,2 , . . . K 1,n ) as a further temporary object; and

performing a cryptographic operation on the data in the online data signing system according to the first key K 1 comprises:

performing a cryptographic operation on data with each first key (K 1,1 , K 1,2 , . . . K 1,n ) in the online data signing system.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein:

the decryption of each encrypted first key E Kw [K 1,1 ], E Kw [K 1,2 ,] . . . E Kw [K 1,n ] is performed during startup and initialization of the online data signing system.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein:

the method further comprises accepting, in the online data signing system, a request from the user device to perform a cryptographic operation on the data according to the configuration; and

the decryption of each encrypted first key E Kw [K 1,1 ], E Kw [K 1,2 ,] . . . E Kw [K 1,n ] is performed in response to the accepting of the request from the user device.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the first key K 1 is a symmetric randomly generated key; and

the second key K 2 is identical to the first key.

17 . An apparatus for providing security credentials, comprising:

a processor;

a memory, communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing processor instructions comprising processor instructions for:

accepting a request to generate at least one key in an online data signing system;

generating, in a hardware security module communicatively coupled to the online data signing system, a first key K 1 as a temporary object;

encrypting, by the hardware security module, the first key K 1 according to a wrapping key Kw to produce an encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ];

storing the encrypted first key;

providing a second key K 2 associated with the first key K 1 to a user device communicatively coupled to the online data signing system;

linking, in the online data signing system, a configuration defined by an administrator to the encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ];

accepting, in the online data signing system, a request from the user device to perform a cryptographic operation on data according to the configuration;

retrieving the encrypted first key from storage;

decrypting, in the hardware security module, the encrypted first key according to the wrapping key Kw to recover the first key K 1 as a further temporary object;

performing a cryptographic operation on the data in the online data signing system according to the first key K 1 ; and

providing a result of the cryptographic operation to the user device.

18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein:

the first key K 1 is a private key K Pr ;

the second key K 2 is a public key K pu ;

the processor instructions further comprise processor instructions for:

generating, in the online data signing system, a digital certificate corresponding to the private key K Pr ; and

providing the public key K Pu to the user device comprises providing the digital certificate having the public key K Pu to a user device.

19 . The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein:

the first key K 1 is a private key K Pr ;

the second key K 2 is a public key K pu ;

the processor instructions further comprise processor instructions for:

generating a certificate signing request according to the public key K Pu ;

providing the generated certificate signing request from the online data signing system to the an administrator;

receiving a digital certificate from the administrator, the digital certificate procured from a certificate authority in response to the certificate signing request;

associating the received digital certificate with the private key K Pr ; and

storing the received digital certificate.

20 . An apparatus for providing security credentials, comprising:

means for accepting a request to generate at least one key in an online data signing system;

means for generating, in a hardware security module communicatively coupled to the online data signing system, a first key K 1 as a temporary object;

means for encrypting, by the hardware security module, the first key K 1 according to a wrapping key Kw to produce an encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ];

means for storing the encrypted first key;

means for providing a second key K 2 associated with the first key K 1 to a user device communicatively coupled to the online data signing system;

means for linking, in the online data signing system, a configuration defined by an administrator to the encrypted first key E Kw [K 1 ];

means for accepting, in the online data signing system, a request from the user device to perform a cryptographic operation on data according to the configuration;

means for retrieving the encrypted first key from storage;

means for decrypting, in the hardware security module, the encrypted first key according to the wrapping key Kw to recover the first key K 1 as a further temporary object;

means for performing a cryptographic operation on the data in the online data signing system according to the first key K 1 ; and

means for providing a result of the cryptographic operation to the user device.