Intro WIP
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@ -102,41 +102,48 @@ As \textcite{andersonSecurityEngineeringGuide2020} writes on HSMs and their secu
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\begin{quote}
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Security economics remains a big soft spot, with security chips being in many ways a market for lemons. A banker
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buying HSMs probably won’t be aware of the huge gap between FIPS\footnote{Anderson here refers to the US national
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HSM security standard FIPS
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140~\cite{usnationalinstituteofstandardsandtechnologySecurityRequirementsCryptographic2002,
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usnationalinstituteofstandardsandtechnologySecurityRequirementsCryptographic2019}} level 3 and level 4, and
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understand that level 3 can sometimes be defeated with a Swiss army knife. The buying incentive there is compliance,
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and where real security clashes with operations it’s not surprising to see weaker standards designed to make
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compliance easier.
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\begin{flushright}
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Security economics remains a big soft spot, with security chips being in many ways a market for lemons. A banker
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buying HSMs probably won’t be aware of the huge gap between FIPS [US national HSM security standard] level 3 and
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level 4, and understand that level 3 can sometimes be defeated with a Swiss army knife. The buying incentive
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there is compliance, and where real security clashes with operations it’s not surprising to see weaker standards
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designed to make compliance easier.
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\textit{\textcite{andersonSecurityEngineeringGuide2020} p. 629}
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\end{flushright}
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\end{quote}
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In this thesis, we aim to fill this gap in easily obtainable, secure hardware and extend the level of protection
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afforded by cryptographic protocol design down the technology stack to the hardware level.
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We propose a new HSM design that unlike existing designs can be manufactured at low cost and without access to
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specialized tools.
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afforded by cryptographic protocol design down the technology stack to the hardware level. We propose a new HSM design
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that unlike existing designs can be manufactured at low cost and without access to specialized tools.
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% Go into drawbacks of existing HSMs, they violate kerckhoffs' principle
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We publish our design fully open source
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Kerckhoffs' principle, and the principle of least authority. Kerckhoffs' principle\footnote{
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% Go into drawbacks of existing HSMs
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We publish our design fully open source, including all detials necessary for replication. A fundamental principle in
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cryptographic engineering is Kerckhoffs' principle\footnote{
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\textcite{petitcolasKerckhoffsPrinciplesCryptographie} contains a high-quality OCR'ed copy of the original source,
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as well as a translation of the cited part from French. The original source is
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\textcite{kerckhoffsCryptographieMilitaire1883}.
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}, named after Dutch military cryptographer Auguste Kerckhoffs, expresses that the security of a cryptographic system
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should only depend on the secrecy of its keys, not on the secrecy of its design. In this way, Kerckhoff's principle
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states the opposite of the widespread industry practice of \emph{Security by Obscurity}, which aims to achieve security
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by making it sufficiently costly to cryptoanalyze a system that the attempt becomes unattractive. The reliance of
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contemporary hardware security measures such as the majority of Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) on chip-scale
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integration as their main barrier against manipulation is an instance where Kerckhoffs' principle is violated.
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}, named after Dutch military cryptographer Auguste Kerckhoffs. Kerckhoffs' principle expresses that the security of a
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cryptographic system should only depend on the secrecy of its keys, not on the secrecy of its design. In this way,
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Kerckhoff's principle states the opposite of the widespread industry practice of \emph{Security by Obscurity}, which
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aims to achieve security by making it sufficiently costly to cryptoanalyze a system that the attempt becomes
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unattractive. All existing commercial HSM designs as well as some existing academic related work violate this principle
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by keeping details of their implementation such as the precise mesh dimensions and manufacturing methods secret. By
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publishing all details of our research into HSMs and their components, we provide the foundation for future independent
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research.
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Complementary to Kerckhoff's principle is the principle of least authority, which describes that in a secure system each
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component should only have access to the smallest set of capabilities necessary to fulfill its purpose. Applying both to
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a cryptographic system means that the system's design should be transparent and not include any hidden components or
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opaque parts that cannot be inspected, and that the system's keys should be scoped to place the least amount of trust
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possible in each participating party. Existing HSMs are an example of a violation of the principle of least authority
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since they elevate the HSM manufacturer to a single point of failure. Since the tamper sensing mesh foils used in
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conventional HSMs are made in proprietary, bespoke processes, they cannot be manufactured independently.
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since they elevate the HSM manufacturer to a single point of failure. The tamper sensing mesh foils used in conventional
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HSMs are made in proprietary, bespoke processes, and cannot be manufactured independently. Our proposed design can be
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replicated from standard components and eliminates this issue.
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\section{Research Questions and Contributions}
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