Many Venafi TLS Protect customers see support for Hardware Security Module (HSM) as critical to meeting the highest security standards that ensure the maximum protection for cryptographic keys. At the same time, these customers are operating rapid-scale cloud environments and embracing modern, highly automated development. Implementing hardware-based, tamper-resistant solutions can be challenging for Infosec teams in highly automated environments where workloads are operating across different clouds and platforms. To tackle this challenge, an ideal solution would be to take the industry’s most advanced and agile solution for issuing ephemeral certificates and workload identities in dynamic cloud environments and build high-performance, seamless support for HSMs. This is precisely what Venafi Firefly now offers.
HSM support for Firefly is now available to meet our customers’ need for the highest crypto standards in highly automated development environments. This new capability is unique in that it seamlessly blends HSM key protection into Firefly’s crypto-agile design that is built from the ground up for modern cloud environments. HSM support means platform engineering teams operating clouds and platforms can rely on Firefly for speed and automation using low-latency, decentralized certificate issuance, with maximized security for workloads using enterprise-approved PKI backed with a compliant HSM operation.
Key features and benefits of HSM support in Venafi Firefly
Enhanced security with hardware-protected signing keys
Venafi Firefly now supports hardware-protected signing keys, providing an enterprise-grade solution for high-security environments. By leveraging HSMs, Firefly ensures that signing keys are safeguarded against potential in-memory attacks. Governed by the Venafi Control Plane, security teams can mandate the use of HSMs for Firefly’s signing keys, even specifying which HSM clients are authorized for use. This granular control enhances the security posture of organizations using Firefly.
Simplified compliance with security policies
Organizations striving to comply with stringent security policies that govern enterprise trusted issuers will find Firefly’s HSM support particularly beneficial. While there is an added layer of deployment and some operational complexity, the trade-off is a significant increase in security. Hardware key protection simplifies the process of achieving compliance, ensuring that all signing keys adhere to enterprise security standards.
Broad compatibility and lifecycle management
Firefly interacts with HSMs through the industry-standard PKCS#11 interface, ensuring compatibility with virtually any HSM on the market. This standardization simplifies integration and extends Firefly's usability across various hardware solutions. Additionally, Firefly self-manages the complete lifecycle of hardware-protected keys, including their generation and removal from the HSM. This feature ensures that keys are securely handled, whether Firefly is not shut down abruptly or gracefully.
Flexible deployment options
Firefly for HSM is distributed as an executable binary, allowing organizations the flexibility to build their own container images or deploy Firefly in traditional environments where containers are not feasible. It supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 8 and 9, as well as Ubuntu Server LTS versions 20.04 and 22.04, providing broad compatibility for diverse IT environments.
Venafi Firefly's key security capabilities
Venafi Firefly is designed as a compliant, enterprise-grade issuer for workload identities, optimized for high-scale Kubernetes environments. Here are some of the critical security capabilities of Firefly:
- Compliance and Security Standards: Firefly ensures that all workloads adhere to enterprise security standards, overcoming the limitations of non-compliant certificate issuance.
- Policy Control: Infosec teams can enforce consistent security policies across multi-cluster and multi-cloud environments, providing crucial policy controls for workloads.
- Extended Security: Firefly extends its capabilities to secure workloads on Virtual Machines (VMs), offering robust policy control and visibility for both containerized and non-containerized environments.
- Trusted Communication: By enforcing trusted communication for all types of workloads, Firefly ensures robust security throughout the organization.
- Scalability and Authentication: Firefly streamlines workload authentication and scalability using ephemeral secrets management backed by enterprise-approved PKI.
- SPIFFE Framework: Building upon the SPIFFE workload identity framework, Firefly issues validated SPIFFE IDs (SVIDs) to all workloads, ensuring secure and verifiable identities.
Discover the enhanced security and compliance features of Venafi Firefly with HSM support. Sign up for a free trial today and take the first step towards securing your cloud-native and microservices architectures using the very highest standards for workload security.