Cryptographic key generation using a stored input value and a stored count value

• US 20100329455A1
• Filed: 06/24/2009
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Nemiroff, Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,971,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/582 Pseudo-random number generators
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/588 Random number generators, i.e. based on natural stochastic processes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/24 Key scheduling, i.e. generating round keys or sub-keys for block encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/72 Signcrypting, i.e. digital signing and encrypting simultaneously
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0662 with particular pseudorandom sequence generator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0861 Generation of secret information including derivation or calculation of cryptographic keys or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 involving random numbers or seeds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3249 using RSA or related signature schemes, e.g. Rabin scheme

Abstract

Embodiments of an invention for cryptographic key generation using a stored input value and a stored count value have been described. In one embodiment, a processor includes non-volatile storage storing an input value and a count value, and logic to generate a cryptographic key based on the stored input value and the stored count value.

Claims

1. A processor comprising:

non-volatile storage storing an input value and a first count value; and

logic to generate a cryptographic key based on the stored input value and the stored first count value.

2. The processor of claim 1, wherein the input value is a random number.

3. The processor of claim 2, the non-volatile storage also storing a second count value.

4. The processor of claim 3, wherein the logic is to generate an RSA key pair based on the stored input value, the stored first count value, and the stored second count value.

5. The processor of claim 4, wherein the logic is to seed a pseudo-random number generator based on the stored input value, iteratively generate a first sequence of pseudo-random numbers based on stored first count value, iteratively generate a second sequence of pseudo-random numbers based on the stored second count value, and use a first and a second output of the pseudo-random number generator to generate an RSA key pair.

6. A system comprising:

non-volatile storage storing an input value and a first count value; and

a processor to generate a cryptographic key based on the stored input value and the stored first count value.

7. A method comprising:

generating an input value;

seeding a pseudo-random number generator based on the input value;

determining whether an output value from the pseudo-random number generator is prime;

feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator, based on the determination of whether the output of the pseudo-random number generator is prime;

counting the number of times the output of the pseudo-random number generator is fed back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator; and

storing in a non-volatile memory the input value and the number of times the output of the pseudo-random number generator is fed back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating the input value is performed by a true-random number generator.

9. A method comprising:

reading an input value and a first count value from a non-volatile memory;

seeding a pseudo-random number generator based on the input value;

feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the first count value; and

generating a cryptographic key based on an output value from the pseudo-random number generator.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising reading a second count value from the non-volatile memory.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein seeding a pseudo-random number generator based on the input value includes generating a first seed value and a second seed value from the input value.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein seeding a pseudo-random number generator based on the input value includes generating a first seed value and a second seed value from the input value.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein seeding a pseudo-random number generator includes seeding the pseudo-random number generator with the first seed value and seeding the pseudo-random number generator with the second seed value.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the first count value includes feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the first count value after seeding the pseudo-random number generator with the first seed value.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the second count value after seeding the pseudo-random number generator with the second seed value.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein generating a cryptographic key based on an output value from the pseudo-random number generator includes using a first output value from the pseudo-random number generator after feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the first count value after seeding the pseudo-random number generator with the first seed value.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein generating a cryptographic key based on an output value from the pseudo-random number generator includes using a second output value from the pseudo-random number generator after feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the second count value after seeding the pseudo-random number generator with the second seed value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein generating a cryptographic key based on an output value from the pseudo-random number generator includes using the first output value as a first prime number and using the second output value as a second prime number in an RSA key pair generation algorithm.

19. A machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed, cause a processing system to:

read an input value and a first count value from a non-volatile memory;

seed a pseudo-random number generator based on the input value;

feed the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the first count value; and

generate a cryptographic key based on an output value from the pseudo-random number generator.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 19, wherein generating a cryptographic key includes generating an RSA key pair using as a first prime number a first output value from the pseudo-random number generator after feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by the first count value after seeding the pseudo-random number generator with a first seed value based on the input value, and using as a second prime number a second output value from the pseudo-random number generator after feeding the output of the pseudo-random number generator back to the input of the pseudo-random number generator the number of times indicated by a second count value read after seeding the pseudo-random number generator with a second seed value based on the input value.