Part 1: General - Computer Security Resource Center - National ...

March, 2007
The process for the initial installation of keying material (e.g., by manual entry, electronic key
loader, by a vendor during manufacture) shall include the protection of the keying material
during entry into a software/hardware/system/application/cryptomodule/ device, take into
account the requirements of [FIPS140-2] and its differing requirements based on levels of
protection, and include any additional procedures that may be required.
Many applications or systems are provided by the manufacturer with keying material that is used
to test that the newly installed application/system is functioning properly. This test keying
material shall not be used operationally.
8.1.5 Key Establishment Function
Key establishment involves the generation and distribution, or the agreement of keying material
for communication between entities. All keys shall be generated within a FIPS 140-2 validated
cryptographic module or obtained from another source approved by the U.S. Government for the
protection of national security information. During the key establishment process, some of the
keying material may be in transit (i.e., the keying material is being manually or electronically
distributed). Other keying material may be retained locally. In either case, the keying material
shall be protected in accordance with Section 6.
An entity may be an individual (person), organization, device or process. When keying material
is generated by an entity for its own use, and the keying material is not distributed among “subentities”
(e.g., is not distributed among various individuals, devices or processes within an
organization), one or more of the appropriate protection mechanisms for stored information in
Section 6.2.2 shall be used.
Keying material that is distributed between entities, or among an entity and its sub-entities, shall
be protected using one or more of the appropriate protection mechanisms specified in Section
6.2.1. Any keying material that is not distributed (e.g., the private key of a key pair, or one's own
copy of a symmetric key) shall be protected using one or more of the appropriate protection
mechanisms specified in Section 6.2.2.
8.1.5.1 Generation and Distribution of Asymmetric Key Pairs
Key pairs shall be generated in accordance with the mathematical specifications of the
appropriate Approved standard.
A static key pair shall be generated by the entity that “owns” the key pair (i.e., the entity that
uses the private key in the cryptographic computations), by a facility that distributes the key pair
in accordance with Section 8.1.5.1.3, or by the user and facility in a cooperative process. When
generated by the entity that owns the key pair, a signing private key shall not be distributed to
other entities. In the case of a signature verification public key and its associated private key, the
owner should generate the keying material rather than any other entity generating the keying
material for that owner; this will facilitate non-repudiation.
Ephemeral keys are often used for key establishment (see [SP800-56]). They are generated for
each new key establishment process (e.g., unique to each message or session
The generated key pairs shall be protected in accordance with Section 6.1.1.
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