David Wong

cryptologie.net

cryptography, security, and random thoughts

Hey! I'm David, cofounder of zkSecurity, research advisor at Archetype, and author of the Real-World Cryptography book. I was previously a cryptography architect of Mina at O(1) Labs, the security lead for Libra/Diem at Facebook, and a security engineer at the Cryptography Services of NCC Group. Welcome to my blog about cryptography, security, and other related topics.

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Key Ceremony

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There was a DNSSEC KSK (Key Signing Key) Ceremony. I guess it most not be too far away from what is a Key Ceremony

In public-key cryptography and computer security, a root key ceremony is a procedure where a unique pair of public and private root keys is generated. Depending on the certificate policy, the generation of the root Keys may require notarization, legal representation, witnesses and ‘key holders’ to be present, as the information on the system is a responsibility of the parties. The ‘best practice’ is to follow the SAS 70 standard for root key ceremonies.

The actual Root Key-Pair generation is normally conducted in a secure vault that has no communication or contact with the outside world other than a single telephone line or intercom. Once the vault is secured, all personnel present must prove their identity using at least two legally recognized forms of identification. Every person present, every transaction and every event is logged by the lawyer in a Root Key Ceremony Log Book and each page is notarized by the notary. From the moment the vault door is closed until it is re-opened, everything is also video recorded. The lawyer and the organization’s two signatories must sign the recording and it too is then notarized.

Finally, as part of the above process, the Root Key is broken into as many as twenty-one parts and each individual part is secured in its own safe for which there is a key and a numerical lock. The keys are distributed to as many as twenty-one people and the numerical code is distributed to another twenty-one people.

It’s not that interesting, but I was just curious so I watched the footage of what it is here: http://data.iana.org/ksk-ceremony/21/KSK21-CAM1.mp4

It’s boring.

But if you have nothing better to do, or you are curious like me, well here you go

← back to all posts blog • 2015-08-28
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Key Ceremony
08-28 blog
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