You are here: Administration & Maintenance Manual > HSM Administration > Lost PED Keys or PED PINs, or passwords

Lost PED Keys or PED PINs, or passwords

 

 

Help! I have lost my blue/black/red/orange/purple/white PED Key or I have forgotten the password!

ANSWER-general (Passwords): Go to the secure lockup (a safe, an off-site secure deposit box, other) where you sensibly keep such important information, read and memorize the password. Return to the HSM and resume using your HSM(s).

ANSWER-general (PED Keys): Retrieve one of the copies that we (and your security advisor/consultant) always advise you to make, from your on-site secure storage, or from your off-site [disaster-recovery] secure storage, make any necessary replacement copies, using Luna PED, and resume using your HSM(s).

If you have lost a blue PED Key, someone else might have found it. Consider lunacm:>changePw or lunash:>hsm changePw, as appropriate to invalidate the current blue key secret, which might be compromised, and to safeguard your HSM with a new SO secret, going forward. HSM and partition contents are preserved.

 

But I don't have keys or secrets in secure on-site or off-site storage! What do I do?

ANSWER - blue PED Key or SO password : If you truly have not kept a securely stored written backup of your HSM SO Password, or for PED-authenticated HSM, your blue SO PED Key, then you are out of luck. If you do have access to your partition(s), then immediately make backups of all partitions that have important content. When you have done what you can to safeguard partition contents, then perform hsm factoryReset, followed by hsm init - this is a "hard initialization" that wipes your HSM (destroying all partitions on it) and creates a new HSM SO password or blue PED Key. You can then create new partitions and restore contents from backup. Any object that was in HSM SO space (rather than within a partition) is irretrievably lost.

ANSWER - black PED Key or Partition User password : If you truly have not kept a secured written backup of your partition User Password, or for PED-authenticated HSM, your black partition User PED Key, then log into your HSM as SO, and perform partition resetPw. The partition changePw action is done by a partition owner who has the current credential and wishes to change it, so that one is not available to you now. The partition resetPw is done by the HSM SO when the current partition secret has been lost, or is compromised (perhaps by the unplanned departure of personnel). Select option 4 when you run the command.

lunash:> partition resetpw -partition mypar

Which part of the partition password do you wish to change?

1. change User or Partition Owner (black) PED key data

2. generate new random password for partition owner

3. generate new random password for crypto-user

4. both options 1 and 2

0. abort command

Please select one of the above options: 4

Luna PED operation required to reset partition PED key data - use User or Partition Owner (black) PED key.

****
'partition resetPw' successful.

Command Result : (Success)
lunash:>

**** Follow the PED prompts:   
a. press [No] when asked “Would you like to reuse an existing keyset? (y/n)”

b. provide the M and N values of your choice ( [1] and [1] if you don't want MofN)

c. press [Yes] to overwrite the user key

d. provide your choice of PED key PIN when prompted (or just press [Enter] if you do not wish to impose a PED PIN)

e. press [Yes] when asked “Do you want to duplicate the keyset? (y/n)”

f. write down the new random challenge from the PED screen (for best legibility, type it)



Now that you have the new partition authentication, you can change the PED-generated text challenge to something more to your liking via the partition changePw command, choosing option 3.

lunash:> partition changePw -partition mypar1

Which part of the partition password do you wish to change?

1. change partition owner (black) PED key data
2. generate new random password for partition owner
3. specify a new password for the partition owner
4. both options 1 and 2

0. abort command

Please select one of the above options: 3
> ****************

Please enter the password for the partition:
>********

Please enter a new password for the partition:
>********


'partition -changePw' successful.

Command Result : 0 (Success)
lunash:>

ANSWER - red PED Key or HSM-or-Partition domain secret: If you have the red PED Key or the HSM-or-Partition domain secret for another HSM or Partition that is capable of cloning (or backup/restore) with the current HSM or Partition, then you have the domain that you need - just make a copy. Cloning or backup/restore can take place only between entities that have identical domains, so that other domain must be the same as the one you "lost".

If you truly have not kept a secured written backup of your HSM or partition cloning domain, or for PED-authenticated HSM, your domain PED Key(s), then you are out of luck. Any keys or objects that exist under that domain can still be used, but cannot be cloned or backed-up or restored. You have no fall-back, in case of accident. Begin immediately to phase in new/replacement keys/objects on another HSM, for which you DO have the relevant domain secret(s) or red PED Key(s). Ensure that you have copies of the red PED Keys, or that you have a written record of any text domain string, in secure on-site and off-site backup locations. Phase out the use of the old keys/objects, as you have no way to protect them against a damaged or lost HSM.

ANSWER - orange PED Key : You will need to generate a new Remote PED Vector on one affected HSM with lunacm:>ped vector init or lunash:>hsm ped vector init to have that HSM and an orange key (plus backups) imprinted with the new RPV. Then you must physically go to all other HSMs that had the previous (lost) RPV and do the same, except you must say "Yes" to the PED's "Do you wish to reuse an existing keyset?..." question, in order to bring the new RPV to all HSMs that are intended to use Remote PED with the new orange PED Key(s). If you forget and say "No" to the PED's "...reuse..." question, then you are starting over.   

ANSWER - white Audit PED Key : You will need to initialize the audit role on any affected HSM.   This creates a new Audit identity for that HSM, which orphans all records and files previously created under the old, lost audit role. The audit files that were previously created can still be viewed, but they can no longer be cryptographically verified. Only records and files that are created under the new audit role can be verified, in future.   Remember, when performing Audit init on the first HSM, you can say "Yes" or "No" to Luna PED's "Do you wish to reuse an existing keyset?..." question, as appropriate, but for any additional HSMs that must share that audit role, you must answer "Yes" to "Do you wish to reuse an existing keyset?..."

ANSWER - purple PED Key : If SRK was not enabled, this is not a problem - any purple PED Keys you had for that HSM are invalid anyway. If SRK was enabled, then your options depend on whether the HSM is currently in a tamper condition or Secure Transport mode... or not. There is no way to recover from a tamper or from Secure Transport Mode if the external split of the Master Tamper Key (the SRK) is not available. If you haven't got a backup purple key, your HSM is locked the moment it experiences a tamper event, or if it was placed in Secure Transport Mode. The same applies if you do have the key, but have forgotten/lost a numeric PED PIN that you [optionally] applied when the purple key was imprinted with the Secure Recovery Vector (the external split of the MTK). Either way, you must obtain an RMA and return the HSM to SafeNet for remanufacture. All HSM contents are lost.

If the purple key is lost, BUT the HSM is still in working mode - that is, it has not experienced a tamper event, and you have not placed it in Secure Transport Mode - then you should immediately rescue any important HSM or partition contents by backing them up, and restoring onto another HSM (which does NOT have SRK enabled, or for which SRK is enabled, but you DO still have the purple key). Once that is accomplished, decommission the original HSM, obtain an RMA, and ship it back to SafeNet for re-manufacture. It is not safe to continue using an HSM that has SRK enabled, but for which you have lost the purple PED Key. Any tamper event would render contents irretrievable. Avoid putting yourself in such a situation.

I have my PED Key, but I forgot my PED PIN! What can I do?

Forgetting a PED PIN is the same as not having the correct PED Key. See above, for your options in each situation. A PED PIN is an [OPTION] that you decide, at the time a role is created. If your security regime/protocol demands that your HSM access must enforce multi-factor authentication, then a PED PIN is a useful/necessary option for you. If your security protocol does NOT demand such measures, then you should seriously consider whether it is justified.

Once a PED PIN is imposed, it is a required component of role authentication, until/unless you arrange otherwise. You can remove the requirement for a PED PIN on a given HSM role only if you are currently able to authenticate (log in) to that role. For black PED Keys, you can have the SO reset your authentication. For other roles... not.

Thus, for blue or purple PED Keys, forgetting a PED PIN, like losing the PED Key (with no backups) is fatal.

For red PED Keys, forgetting the PED PIN is eventually fatal, but you can work in the meantime while you phase out your orphaned keys and objects.

Forgetting PED PINs for other roles, like losing their PED Keys is just more-or-less inconvenient, but normally not fatal.

 

I have my PED Keys and my PED PINS, but I can't remember which one goes with which HSM (or partition)!

See your options, above. The most serious one is the blue PED Key or the PED PIN for the SO role. You have only three tries to get it right. On the third wrong attempt, the HSM contents are lost. Wrong attempts are counted if you present the wrong blue PED Key, or if you type the wrong PED PIN with the right PED Key.

For black User PED Keys, and their PED PINS (if applicable) you have ten tries to get the right key or the right combination, unless the SO has changed from the default number of retries. If you are getting close to that maximum number of bad attempts, stop, and ask the SO to reset your partition PW.

For other PED Keys, there is no restriction on re-tries. Good luck. Try to be better organized in future.

 

 

 

 

Lost blue PED Key.   

Lost black PED Key.   

Lost red PED Key.   

Lost orange PED Key.   

Lost white PED Key.   

Lost purple PED Key.   

Forgot password.

Forgot PED PIN.   

 

 

 

.