Hardware Security Modules with KeyControl

A hardware security module (HSM) is a physical server or PCI card that stores, protects, and manages cryptographic material. An HSM is often used to do cryptographic processing as well, including the generation of secure cryptographic keys. It is used in a client-server environment, which means that the server and the client each need to be prepared in advance. As with KMIP, the advantage of an HSM is that it protects and stores critical data such as your Admin Key and any Key EncryptioWen Keys (KEKs) you have created for your Cloud VM Sets.

KeyControl supports the following HSMs: 

  • nShield Connect HSM
  • Safenet Luna HSM

Requirements and Recommendations for nShield Connect Servers

The nShield Connect client version 12.60 is included in HyTrust DataControl/KeyControl 5.2. nShield Connect servers compatible with the 12.60 client are supported. You can also use either the on-premise nCipher nShield HSM or nShield as a Service (nSaaS).

For additional details, see your nCipher nShield documentation.

Requirements and Recommendations for SafeNet LUNA Servers

You can configure the nodes in your KeyControl cluster to either connect to the HSM using one certificate that they all share or with individual certificates for each node. The KeyControl nodes can also be connected to multiple HSM servers that have been configured as a Safenet HA Group to allow for High Availability. For more information, see Configuring KeyControl as an SafeNet Luna HSM Client with a Single Cluster Certificate and Configuring KeyControl as an SafeNet Luna HSM Client with Individual Node Certificates.

Note: If you have a Safenet Luna SA server with the ipcheck feature enabled, you must use unique node certificates.

  • The Luna client version 10.2 is included in HyTrust DataControl/KeyControl 5.1.2 and greater. Luna client 10.2 is compatible with HSMs running Luna 6.2.1 or higher. The Thales Cloud HSM is not currently supported.

  • Bandwidth recommendation:

    • Minimum: 10 Mbps half duplex
    • Recommended: 100 Mbps full duplex

  • Latency recommendation:

    • Maximum: 500 ms
    • Recommended: 0.5 ms

  • TCP port 1792 is required to establish a trusted connection between KeyControl and SafeNet. The other ports used by SafeNet are:

    • TCP port 22 for SSH (Secure Shell).
    • TCP port 1503 for Remote PED. This is the only configurable port.
    • UDP port 514 for the Syslog service.
    • UDP port 123 for NTP service.
    • UDP ports 161/162 for SNMP service.

For additional details, see your SafeNet documentation.

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