The Hardware-based PKCS#11 Standard using the RSA Algorithm

In this paper, we have proposed and implemented a hardware-based security system, which executes RSA-based cryptography operations by using the PKCS#11 standard. It was implemented in C, VHDL and FPGAs and it is modular and easily adaptable to the future upgrades for the communication among machines and devices. Any cryptography algorithm can be used; however, in our project we only used the RSA as a case study. We did simulations and real tests that allowed verifying the correct behavior and execution of our project; we used the RSA with keys up to 512 bits. Real tests showed the transmission of ciphered data between our project (PKCS#11 and RSA) and a PC by using serial communication.