communicate with remote safenet hsm using TCP connection

Question

I am new to the HSM, i have to connect to remote safenet HSM using TCP connection ? how should i communicate ? whats the TPK,TMK and how it works ? please share some links or documents.

Answer 1

Is your HSM device a network or PCI based HSM?

As I have been working with network based HSM, you need to install the driver for this particular network HSM and configure it by setting up the IP address (It is a wizard so you will not miss it).

After doing so, the windows registry will be updated and on your application you do not have to change anything, it is as calling normal ProtectToolkit API.

It is mentioned in the manual (PDF) when you purchased the device. Check the installation folder.

Answer 2

First off, whenever you see a reference to an "_MK" on an HSM, it's referring to the the master key. Each acronym may be vendor specific. These master keys are used to protect other keys that you or your applications may generate on the device.

To interact with a remote SafeNet HSM, the HSM must first be configured for network use. When you first power up a networked HSM, you'll need to connect to it over a serial connection first, and you can then configure an IP for the NIC. Once that's done, you can use the supplied CLI tools that come with the SafeNet Luna Client Driver for Windows/Linux to connect and even do some test operations (demo tool allows testing simple things like RSA key gen).