Centralized PKI Provisioning for IoT Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge lies in generating high-quality cryptographic keypairs for devices, particularly IoT devices, without specialized hardware, as pseudorandom number generators produce vulnerable keypairs, making it difficult to ensure security in device configuration and key rotation.
Innovation Solution
A centralized identity provisioning service using a third-party server generates high-quality entropy keypairs, which are then distributed to devices, eliminating the need for local specialized hardware and enhancing security through time-bound session tokens.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If specialized hardware is used to generate high-quality entropy for cryptographic keypairs, then security is improved, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
A centralized identity provisioning service acts as an intermediary that generates high-quality cryptographic keypairs using specialized hardware, then distributes them to devices. This mediator approach allows devices to obtain secure keys without needing to implement complex entropy generation hardware themselves, resolving the contradiction between security and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The entropy generation function is extracted from individual devices and centralized in a dedicated provisioning service. By separating the entropy generation capability from the end devices, the system maintains high security while keeping device complexity low, as only the centralized service requires specialized hardware.
2Reliability
If specialized hardware is used for entropy generation, then quality of cryptographic keypairs is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The centralized provisioning service serves as an intermediary that performs the power-intensive entropy generation centrally, then distributes the generated keys to devices. This eliminates the need for each device to consume power for complex entropy generation, while still providing high-quality cryptographic keypairs.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of each device generating its own entropy, the system creates a master entropy source centrally and distributes copies of the generated cryptographic material to multiple devices. This copying approach allows high-quality key generation without replicating the power-intensive entropy generation hardware in each device.
3Device complexity
If pseudorandom number generators are used in general processors, then device complexity is reduced, but security of cryptographic keypairs deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The centralized provisioning service acts as a mediator that provides high-quality random entropy to devices, allowing them to use simple pseudorandom number generators locally while still obtaining secure cryptographic keypairs from the trusted external entropy source.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary entropy generation and key creation in a centralized environment with access to high-quality random sources, then distributes the pre-generated cryptographic material to devices. This preliminary action ensures security is established before devices need to operate with limited entropy generation capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments relate to systems for distribution of cryptographic keys generated with high quality entropy on to new or configurable devices using a centralized entropy provider located at a server and a provisioning device that communicates between the server and the configurable devices. The server may receive a request from a provisioning device for a cryptographic keypair. For example, the provisioning device may be physically connected to a configurable device for bootstrapping and requests the identity keys to install on to the configurable device. The server generates the cryptographic keypair having newly generated public and private keys for the configurable device. The server encrypts the newly generated keypair (e.g., in the form of a private key and a certificate having the public key) using the public key of the provisioning device and transmits the encrypted keypair to the provisioning device for decryption and installation on to the configurable device.