RSA Security 5.2.2 Manual

A SERVICE OF

next previous

Chapter 4 Using Crypto-C 149

Using Cryptographic Hardware

To implement this, the hardware accelerator might require you to call its key-

wrapping routines to build a digital envelope. When you request the key in order to

store it for later use, the hardware could return a handle to the key. But if you give

that data to another cryptographic package, the key will mean nothing.

So, once you build a key (symmetric or private) on a hardware device, it is possible

that only that hardware device will be able to use that key. Therefore, you should use

hardware accelerators only if you thoroughly understand their use.