Mind the Gap: Updating FIPS 140

1. Mind the Gap: Updating FIPS 140 Steve Weingart Futurex 864 Old Boerne Rd. Bulverde, TX 78163 weingart@futurex.com Steve R. White IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center P.O. Box 704 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 srwhite@watson.ibm.com

2. Outline • History • FED Standard 1027 • FIPS 140 – 1 • Levels • Changes in Technology • Changes in Standards and the Environment • Proposal: Level 3.5 • Discussion/Questions

3. History • Federal Standard 1027 was primarily a hardware standard for line encryption devices using single DES • NIST developed FIPS 140 as a replacement • It is more generalized. • It accepts both hardware and software implementations • It has the 11 criteria that cover the complete design • During the development of FIPS 140 a level based system was proposed and accepted • FIPS 140-1 was made official in 1994 • It became widely accepted • FIPS 140-2, the first update, was made official in 2001

4. History (cont) • Things have changed • Both attack and defense technologies have improved • Industry needs & requirements have changed • The standard, and its applicability, evolves

5. Original proposed six level system

6. FIPS 140, 4 level system

7. Changes • Attack Technologies have developed • The Internet has become a forum for development • Script Kiddies can obtain and try many software attacks beyond their skill level • Expensive tools that were difficult to obtain are now available • SEM • FIB • NC Machining • Defense technologies have held up, mostly • Not a great deal of new development • That is mostly OK, since the higher levels have held

8. The customer population has become larger and more sophisticated Banking and Financial USPS In General FIPS 140 has become accepted ‘Due Diligence’for commercial cryptographic devices This has spotlighted some need for change in the standard Changes (cont)

9. The Gap • FIPS 140 has 4 levels • These 4 levels correspond roughly to levels 1, 2, 3 & 6 from the originally proposed system • So, there is a large gap between level 3 and level 4 • A typical level 3 device can cracked in a few hours by anyone with reasonable skills • No level 4 device has been cracked publicly • But, the level 4 requirements are so difficult that there are almost no level 4 devices

10. The Gap

11. The Gap • There are 179 level 1 validations, 247 level 2 validations, 120 level 3 validations & 11 level 4 validations (557 total) • Of the level 4 devices, about half are unique, the rest are delta/re-validations. • Level 4 is too difficult develop, and too expensive to manufacture for most vendors • But industry requirements need more than level 3 • USPS and ANSI both require tamper detection, UPSP requires EFT/EFP • We need something new

12. The Proposal • Level 3.5 • Essentially level 3 plus: • Tamper detection required • 1 – 1.25 mm max undetected hole • Same as level 4 for single chip • EFT/EFP • Informal modeling

13. The Advantages • Meet new & emerging requirements for security that is stronger than level 3 • Avoid the most difficult requirements of level 4: • Formal modeling • Any/All tamper detection envelope • This level of security is reasonable to develop and manufacture

14. Questions?

15. Thank You! Steve Weingart weingart@futurex.com Steve R. White srwhite@watson.ibm.com