Secure Vault technology is a new suite of state-of-the-art security features designed to help connected device manufacturers address escalating Internet of Things (IoT) security threats and regulatory pressures. Silicon Labs’ Wireless Gecko Series 2 platform takes advantage of Secure Vault by combining best-in-class security software features with physically unclonable function (PUF) hardware technology to greatly reduce the risk of IoT security breaches and compromised intellectual property.
Features
One of the biggest challenges for connected devices is post-deployment authentication. Silicon Labs' factory trust provisioning service with optional secure programming provides a secure device identity certificate during IC manufacturing, analogous to a birth certificate, for each individual silicon die, enabling post-deployment security, authenticity and attestation-based health checks. The device certificate guarantees the authenticity of the chip for its lifetime.
- Secure Key Management and Storage
The effectiveness of a security scheme for device and data access directly depends on key secrecy. With Secure Vault, keys are encrypted and isolated from the application code. Virtually unlimited secure key storage is offered as all keys are encrypted using a master encryption key generated using a PUF. The power-up signatures are unique to a single device, and master keys are created during the power-up phase to eliminate master key storage, further reducing attack vectors.
- Advanced Tamper Detection
This feature offers a wide range of capabilities from easy-to-implement product enclosure tamper resistance to sophisticated tamper detection of silicon through voltage, frequency and temperature manipulations. Hackers use these changes to force hardware or software to behave unexpectedly, creating vulnerabilities for glitch attacks. Configurable tamper-response features enable developers to set up appropriate response actions with interrupts, resets, or in extreme cases, secret key deletion.