Securing Satellite Communications: Insights from Eric Blankenhorn and wolfSSL at Satellite 2024
wolfSSL returns to Satellite 2024 this year, with Senior Software Engineer Eric Blankenhorn taking the spotlight as a featured speaker for the conference program, “Fortifying the Skies: Space Defenders on the Frontlines of Cybersecurity”. Scheduled for March 21st at 9:30 am ET in room 146C, this program is a pivotal opportunity to delve into the evolving landscape of the space domain and address the critical need for securing satellite networks.
As the space domain continues to evolve and expand, ensuring the security and resilience of satellite networks is crucial. This conference program offers a unique platform to engage with industry leaders, gain invaluable insights, and collectively work towards a more secure future in space.
Eric, alongside other industry experts, will explore various topics including emerging threats in satellites and space, the development of standards and best practice for satellite cybersecurity, the convergence of IT & OT security, and strategies for securing the space supply chain.
Conference Program Details:
- Title: Fortifying the Skies: Space Defenders on the Frontlines of Cybersecurity
- Date: March 21st | 9:30 am ET
- Location: Room 146C
Make sure to mark your calendar and seize this opportunity to learn about securing satellite networks from cyber attacks and enhancing their resilience against evolving threats.
The wolfSSL will be available at booth 1445 during Satellite 2024 to address any inquiries. Don’t forget to swing by. Let’s safeguard satellite communication together.
If you have questions about any of the above or would like to schedule a one-on-one meeting with wolfSSL at Satellite 2024, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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How to Build wolfSSL for Android
Here at wolfSSL we provide best in class support by using our past experience to know what you will ask and then having examples, documentation and instructions already prepared before you even open a support ticket with us.
A great example of this is the recent uptick in questions about building our wolfSSL library for Android. If you’re building an Android app and have FIPS 140 needs then you’ve come to the right place!
Want to see an Android NDK Gradle example?
How about just a standalone toolchain example?
There is also the ability to replace BoringSSL. Have a look at
https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl/tree/master/IDE/Android
Another thing you might be thinking of is wolfSSL JNI and JSSE! You’ll want to have a look at
https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssljni?tab=readme-ov-file#building-for-android
Perhaps you’re using OpenSSL on Android and you have FIPS 140 requirements. Have a look at https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfProvider/tree/master/IDE/Android
When it comes to Android, we’ve got you covered. And if you need further details or clarifications, we are always happy to help you. Please reach out to facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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Partner Webinar: wolfSSL and Cesium RTOS Integration
Get Excited! wolfSSL is partnering with Weston Embedded Solutions to host an exclusive webinar, wolfSSL and Cesium RTOS Integration, on March 14th at 10 am PT. We will explore the intricate world of secure communication in an RTOS environment. Led by wolfSSL’s Senior Software Developer, Anthony Hu, and Weston Embedded’s President and co-founder, Janos Magasrevy, along with Senior Software Engineer and co-founder at Weston Embedded, Yanko Sosa.
Weston Embedded Solutions is a leading provider of embedded software and engineering services, specializing in the Micrium µC/OS and Cesium RTOS family of products. This webinar presents a unique opportunity to delve into the fundamentals of Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its pivotal role in securing data transmission. Discover the capabilities of Cs/NET and its seamless integration with wolfSSL’s cutting-edge security solutions.
Save the date: March 14th | 10 am PT
You are expecting to learn:
- Learn fundamental of wolfSSL TLS
- Dive into Weston Embedded’s Cs/NET integration with wolfSSL
- Live Demonstration of Cs/NET’s HTTP Client in Action Using TLS v1.3
And much more!
Learn from industry experts as they share valuable insights and best practices in secure communication protocols. Seats are limited, so Register Now while they are available.
As always, our webinars will include Q&A sessions throughout. If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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wolfSSL’s Kyber ML-KEM Implementation Now Included Free of Charge for Commercial Customers; Future Proofing is here today
We are now including commercial Kyber/ML-KEM in our wolfSSL/wolfCrypt commercial packages. At this point, you need to ask our support organization for a delivery if you want to start testing it. If you are willing to wait, then you will find it included in the next commercial bundle that we release. In summary, there will be no additional charge if you are a supported customer of wolfSSL/wolfCrypt.
Please note all of the advantages of our Kyber implementation from the previous blog posting here.
This begs the question, what about customers who have let their support plan lapse? Our answer is “What are you waiting for?!?”. Get started by reviewing our support packages. The next step is to get in contact with your wolfSSL business director and get signed up. You can do that by sending a message to facts@wolfssl.com.
To get an idea of the kind of performance you will get, see our benchmarks here:
Start your future proofing today and get started with post-quantum algorithms! Want wolfSSL’s implementation of Dilithium? Interested in LMS and XMSS? Let’s talk! CNSA 2.0 requirements? We can help. Contact us at facts@wolfssl.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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Support for wolfBoot on Renesas RZ/N2L
We are excited to announce wolfBoot support for the Renesas RZ/N2L evaluation board. The Renesas RZ/N2L uses the high-performance Arm Cortex-R52 core to easily add network functionality onto industrial equipment and machines. The RZ/N2L is supported by an open and flexible ecosystem concept – the Flexible Software Package (FSP), built on FreeRTOS – and is expandable to use other RTOS and middleware.
wolfBoot is a portable secure bootloader solution that offers firmware authentication and firmware update mechanisms. Due to its minimalistic design and tiny HAL API, wolfBoot is completely independent from any OS or bare-metal application.
By adding wolfBoot support for the evaluation board, it demonstrates simple secure firmware boot from external flash memory by wolfBoot. The example uses SPI boot with external flash memory on the evaluation board. On this boot mode, wolfBoot is copied to the internal RAM(B-TCM). wolfBoot copies the application program from external flash memory to RAM(System RAM). As a final step of wolfBoot the entry point of the copied application program is called if the integrity and authenticity of the image are valid. More detailed steps can be found here.
If interested in wolfBoot support on the RZ/N2L, or if you have questions about any of the above, please contact facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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wolfSSL Supports Nucleus RTOS
The Nucleus RTOS uses wolfSSL to provide TLS security. The wolfSSL embedded SSL library is a lightweight SSL/TLS library written in ANSI C and targeted for embedded, RTOS, and resource-constrained environments – primarily because of its small size, speed, and feature set. wolfSSL supports industry standards up to the current TLS 1.3 and DTLS 1.3 protocol levels, is up to 20 times smaller than OpenSSL, and offers progressive ciphers such as ChaCha20, Curve25519, NTRU, and SHA-3.
Additionally, Nucleus employs wolfSSH to provide a client and server SSH library. The wolfSSH library is a lightweight SSHv2 client and server library written in ANSI C and targeted for embedded, RTOS, and resource-constrained environments – primarily because of its small size, speed, and feature set.
Adding FIPS certified cryptography to your Nucleus project is easily accomplished using wolfCrypt FIPS. A version of the wolfCrypt cryptography library has been FIPS 140-2 validated (Certificate #3389), with FIPS 140-3 validation currently in progress!
If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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Post-Quantum Kyber Benchmarks (ARM Cortex-M4)
Hot on the heels of our MacOS benchmarks, we now have our Kyber Benchmarks for Arm Cortex-M4.
Before getting into the numbers, some information on the conditions under which the benchmarks were taken:
- The hardware platform was STM NUCLEO-F446ZE
- The HCLK in the project was set to 168MHz
- Only 1 core used
- wolfSSL Math Configuration set to “Single Precision ASM Cortex-M3+ Math”
- Optimization flag: -Ofast
- Conventional algorithms are present for comparison purposes
Here are our results:
RSA 2048 public 82 ops took 1.020 sec, avg 12.439 ms, 80.392 ops/sec RSA 2048 private 4 ops took 1.827 sec, avg 456.750 ms, 2.189 ops/sec DH 2048 key gen 5 ops took 1.181 sec, avg 236.200 ms, 4.234 ops/sec DH 2048 agree 6 ops took 1.419 sec, avg 236.500 ms, 4.228 ops/sec ECC SECP256R1 key gen 118 ops took 1.012 sec, avg 8.576 ms, 116.601 ops/sec ECDHE SECP256R1 agree 56 ops took 1.016 sec, avg 18.143 ms, 55.118 ops/sec KYBER512 128 key gen 232 ops took 1.004 sec, avg 4.328 ms, 231.076 ops/sec KYBER512 128 encap 192 ops took 1.008 sec, avg 5.250 ms, 190.476 ops/sec KYBER512 128 decap 178 ops took 1.004 sec, avg 5.640 ms, 177.291 ops/sec KYBER768 192 key gen 146 ops took 1.008 sec, avg 6.904 ms, 144.841 ops/sec KYBER768 192 encap 118 ops took 1.008 sec, avg 8.542 ms, 117.063 ops/sec KYBER768 192 decap 110 ops took 1.000 sec, avg 9.091 ms, 110.000 ops/sec KYBER1024 256 key gen 92 ops took 1.011 sec, avg 10.989 ms, 90.999 ops/sec KYBER1024 256 encap 76 ops took 1.000 sec, avg 13.158 ms, 76.000 ops/sec KYBER1024 256 decap 72 ops took 1.000 sec, avg 13.889 ms, 72.000 ops/sec
Our implementation of Kyber’s performance is looking great compared to all the other algorithms. It might appear that ECDHE comes close, but not when you consider the mechanics of a key exchange.
Note that ECDHE is a NIKE (Non-Interactive Key Exchange) while Kyber is a KEM (Key Encapsulation Mechanism) so in the context of TLS 1.3, the numbers as they stand are misleading.
For NIKEs, both the server and the client must do the key generation operation. Then both the server and the client must also do the key agreement step. On the other hand, for KEMs, the client does key generation once, the server does encapsulation once, and the client does decapsulation once. Since NIKEs have double the number of operations to achieve a shared secret, for a fair comparison, we need to double the average time for ECDHE. In this light, the total time for a key exchange looks like this:
| Algorithm | Total Time for Key Exchange |
|---|---|
| ECDH SECP256R1 | 26.719 ms |
| Kyber512 (NIST Level 1) | 15.218 ms |
| Kyber768 (NIST Level 3) | 24.537 ms |
| Kyber1024 (NIST Level 5) | 38.036 ms |
Note that Kyber512, from a security perspective, is comparable to ECDH at SECP256R1.
The numbers speak for themselves: Kyber wins. That said, you can look forward to future optimizations and even better performance gains.
As we’ve noted in the past, Kyber has considerably larger artifacts than ECDHE, depending on your method of transmission, this margin can easily be lost if your transmission speeds are slow.
Want to see further optimizations to our Kyber implementation? Interested in wolfSSL’s other post-quantum algorithm implementations? Let us know so we can prioritize the things you are looking for.
If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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Post-Quantum Kyber Benchmarks (MacOS)
You may be aware that wolfSSL has our own implementation of NIST’s ML-KEM, also known as Kyber. ML-KEM is the post-quantum KEM that is slated for standardization by NIST. While the standard is not complete yet, and we have not yet released our implementation into open source, we do have some benchmarking results to share.
Additionally, we should note some things about our implementation that make it unique and useful:
- It will be fully integrated with our other products, including wolfSSL, wolfBoot, curl, etc.
- It is a consumer of our highly optimized SP Math library, with more ML-KEM optimizations to come!
- Because our products are well integrated with many other open source packages, those packages can inherit Kyber/ML-KEM support.
- It supports bare metal, as well as all of the other operating systems we support, including FreeRTOS, VxWorks, Integrity, Zephyr, Itron, LynxOS, etc.
- It also supports all of the silicon targets we support, including ARM, RISCV, DSPs, FPGAs, intel, etc.
The benchmarks results follow:
Math: Multi-Precision: Wolf(SP) no-dyn-stack word-size=64 bits=4096 sp_int.c Single Precision: ecc 256 384 521 rsa/dh 2048 3072 4096 asm sp_arm64.c wolfCrypt Benchmark (block bytes 1048576, min 1.0 sec each) DH 2048 key gen 3997 ops took 1.000 sec, avg 0.250 ms, 3996.812 ops/sec DH 2048 agree 4100 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.244 ms, 4097.522 ops/sec KYBER512 128 key gen 96100 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.010 ms, 96037.765 ops/sec KYBER512 128 encap 78000 ops took 1.000 sec, avg 0.013 ms, 77970.220 ops/sec KYBER512 128 decap 58900 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.017 ms, 58867.158 ops/sec KYBER768 192 key gen 58200 ops took 1.000 sec, avg 0.017 ms, 58192.314 ops/sec KYBER768 192 encap 48700 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.021 ms, 48664.334 ops/sec KYBER768 192 decap 38100 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.026 ms, 38059.656 ops/sec KYBER1024 256 key gen 37800 ops took 1.003 sec, avg 0.027 ms, 37704.299 ops/sec KYBER1024 256 encap 32600 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.031 ms, 32566.427 ops/sec KYBER1024 256 decap 26000 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.039 ms, 25967.020 ops/sec ECC [ SECP256R1] 256 key gen 84100 ops took 1.001 sec, avg 0.012 ms, 84013.469 ops/sec ECDHE [ SECP256R1] 256 agree 24400 ops took 1.004 sec, avg 0.041 ms, 24300.995 ops/sec
The benchmarks were run on an Apple MacBook Pro 18,3 with an Apple M1 Pro, 3.09 GHz processor. Only 1 core was used. If you want to get the benchmark harness code, then ping us at facts@wolfSSL.com.
This data shows that for Kyber/ML-KEM, algorithm execution performance is rock solid. If you compare Kyber/ML-KEM’s numbers against DH and ECDHE, Kyber holds its own. To understand how to analyze and compare these number, see https://www.wolfssl.com/benchmarks-kyber-level-1-pqm4-integration-stm32-arm-cortex-m4/.
Interested in learning more about our post-quantum efforts? Want to understand how Kyber fits into different protocols and how it might affect your use case? Contact us at wolfSSL by emailing facts@wolfSSL.com or calling us at +1 425 245 8247 to reach out to your regional wolfSSL business director
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Live Webinar: DTLS 1.3 Training
Join us for an exclusive webinar “DTLS 1.3 Training”, scheduled for March 7th at 10am PT. Presented by wolfSSL Software Developer, Marco, this session is your gateway to mastering DTLS 1.3, a groundbreaking protocol adopted by wolfSSL.
As pioneers in TLS technology, wolfSSL is proud to stand as the first library to implement DTLS 1.3. Our webinar is the perfect opportunity to delve into what DTLS 1.3 entails and discover its real-world applications.
Save the date: March 7th | 10am PT
Sneak Peek of the Webinar:
- Dive into fundamental concepts of DTLS
- Discover enhancements in DTLS version 1.3
- Engage in hands-on exploration of DTLS in UDP applications using wolfSSL DTLS 1.3
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to deepen your understanding of DTLS and leverage the power of DTLS 1.3 with wolfSSL. Register now to secure your seat!
As always, our webinars will include Q&A sessions throughout. If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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CPU-Accelerated Cryptography on OpenWRT Using wolfSSL
OpenWRT is a customizable open-source firmware for wireless routers and embedded devices, offering extensive flexibility and control over network configurations. For those looking to enhance their device’s security capabilities with efficient cryptographic operations, integrating wolfSSL with CPU acceleration presents an excellent option. This setup is optimized for devices compatible with x86 and armv8 architectures, ensuring enhanced performance where it matters most.
Setting Up wolfSSL with CPU Acceleration
When configuring OpenWRT, incorporating wolfSSL with CPU acceleration is straightforward.
- Initiate the Configuration Process: Begin with the make menuconfig command to open the OpenWRT configuration menu and select a compatible target device. This assumes you have already met all prerequisites, such as having the correct version of OpenWRT and necessary development tools installed on your system.
- Navigate to wolfSSL Options: From the top menu of the OpenWRT Configuration, make your way to wolfSSL by selecting Libraries → SSL. Here, you will encounter two options: libwolfssl and libwolfsslcpu-crypto. For CPU-accelerated cryptography, select libwolfsslcpu-crypto and ensure that libwolfssl is deselected (See Image). If you do not see libwolfsslcpu-crypto your target device may be incompatible or set up wrong in OpenWRT.
- Configure wolfSSL Library Settings: Proceed to the wolfSSL Library Configuration submenu to customize the options compatible with the libwolfsslcpu-crypto package.
- Save Your Configuration: This will make sure your OpenWRT build environment will compile with wolfSSL’s CPU-accelerated cryptography enabled, enhancing the performance capabilities of your device.
Why CPU Acceleration?
Leveraging CPU acceleration for cryptographic functions with wolfSSL not only improves encryption and decryption speeds but also optimizes processor load, making your device more efficient. To see the advantages of using your compatible device with wolfSSL’s CPU acceleration consider enabling the benchmark package seen in the figure above, and run it when you are in the final image for the device via a call on the command line for wolfssl-benchmark. Share your results with us on X @wolfSSL!
If you have questions about any of the above, please contact us at facts@wolfSSL.com or call us at +1 425 245 8247.
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