Frequently Asked Questions

This section provides additional information by answering questions that are frequently asked by our customers.

We operate a Managed PKI and must satisfy our auditors that the root and intermediate keys and certs are protected according to an accepted standard, including when cloned/backed-up.

We have documented procedures for cloning or backup/restore, and for migration from legacy HSMs to current HSMs, but the procedures are only to ensure that the operations complete successfully. Security of private keys is enforced by the HSM(s) and does not rely on procedure.

The encryption key is either 3-key TDES or AES 256, depending on the HSM firmware version, which itself is afforded the same high level of protection as a CA signing private key. The encryption key is derived using the data from the Red PED Key (48 bytes of HSM-generated random data) along with source and target HSM random nonces that are exchanged using RSA 2048 bit encryption. Both the source and target HSMs must be legitimate SafeNet HSMs and their RSA certificates (used to exchange encrypted nonces) are signed by the SafeNet manufacturing PKI when the devices are manufactured.

SafeNet PCIe HSM 6.3 Product Documentation
007-011329-012 Rev. A 14 July 2017 Copyright 2001-2017 Gemalto All rights reserved.