5 ms·
What surprises me is that you can extract the private key at all - I would expect it to be firmly inside a HSM, that only accepts signing requests and the key n
by m4rtink 6y ago
What surprises me is that you can extract the private key at all - I would expect it to be firmly inside a HSM, that only accepts signing requests and the key never leaves the module & the HSM wipes the key if it detects tampering (there is usually a battery inside to power the tampering detection even if the device is not plugged in).
So just exporting the private key so easily without some pretty involved hight-tech HSM key extraction sounds insane.
- closeparen 6y agoI worked on a new internal PKI, nothing as high stakes as banking, but we did have a security consultant who had been around the block. We did, of course, purchase such HSMs and design a signing ceremony. But in his opinion it was also normal and expected to keep a decryptable copy of the private key, in case of e.g. changing HSM vendors. It would be even less accessible, but it would exist.
- m4rtink 6y agoThat's a good point - I guess if you know what you are doing then I guess it's fine.
- brohee 6y agoOne article said they key was left in clear on a laptop, so maybe a HSM migration was involved.