• Possum

• See

  • Possum for main information

  • Technology/Laboratory/Software/Possum for the developed design scope of the Software

  • Technology/Laboratory/Hardware/Possum for the developed design scope of the Hardware

  • Brain/Study/Possum/Hardware for the ongoing project concept

CAcert.org Possum Project

• Possum is a cross-competence Project for an Open Source Security Module. This is like a commercial HSM, but driven to CAcert's more open requirements.

• The Possum Project can be the basis of Next Generation Open Source CAcert.org Security Module / Signing-Server, and part of the Next Generation Design of CAcert.org Open Source Software BirdShack as well.

Business Proposal

• Possum is not yet designed. In order to design Possum, we could (hypothetically)

  • Design it ourselves

  • Contract it to an expert group

  • Run a Design Competition

This concept is about exploring the the third option.

A Design Competition for Possum

• This could be run along the lines of the NIST/AES effort. An open-to-all call asking for a design for each module. Each module should be specified to a sufficient standard.
• A time-line should be set with phases. For example, following the lines of the AES effort:
  • 1. Announce
  • 2. Open presentation of all designs, X months later
  • 3. Comment and attack period
  • 4. Selection of finalists
  • 5. Presentation of finalists
  • 6. Comment and attack period
  • 7. Selection of winner
  • 8. Production of reference implementations
• This fits the criteria of a peer-reviewed exercise, so it is most of the way to being academically viable. To further market it, budget for the team(s) travel and accomodation to present their proposals within a major related conference.
• Funding could be found from a number of sources.

Requirements

• Possum needs to be:
  • - Buildable by small independent groups.
  • - Low-cost
  • - Relatively secure
    • - Protect the key data from extraction
    • - Protect the system from unauthorised requests
  • - Small verifiable software footprint
  • - Simple, trailing edge hardware footprint
  • - Single standardised protocol
  • - Open access
    • - All components buildable and usable without license issues
    • - Published design
    • - No patents

Components

• There are these Major Tech Components:

  • Hardware Platform

    • - Hardware Interfaces

    • - Physical Protection Module

    • -

  • Protocol

    • - Serial

  • Software

    • - Crypto, protocol driver, key store, application

Hardware

• - Hardware must be readily sourcable and low cost.
• - Security not speed.
• - It should have an application interface and a management interface,
• - Small footprint: Low power, low heat, small size.

• Requirements for the Hardware are developed at Technology/Laboratory/Hardware/Possum.

• Notes on the project-work for the hardware side are at Brain/Study/Possum/Hardware.

Protocol

• - Certificate operations
• - Capable of layering over different packet networks.
• - Simple layout
• - Some Management requests
• - Highly reliable
• - Simple layout

See fuller requirements at Technology/Laboratory/Software/Possum.

Software

• - Capable of digital signing
• - Keeps logs of all requests received and handled
• - Protocol driver
• - Management access

See fuller requirements at Technology/Laboratory/Software/Possum.

Misc

Other Applications

• Our Primary interest is CAcert's digital signing server, but this design can be turned to other things:

  • - Digital cash server, e.g., Ricardo or Epointsystem.

  • - Personal safe for private information
  • - MP3 server

  • - Tahoe server or other file-sharing technology

References

• - Peter Gutmann, "An Open-source Cryptographic Coprocessor," Usenix 2000.

• - Peter Gutmann, "Hardware Encryption Modules," forthcoming book.

Feedbacks

• iang at c.o

• Inputs & Thoughts, below:

Inputs & Thoughts

• 20090922-hugi

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