To: Sai P. yandamuri who wrote (360 ) 10/23/1998 5:09:00 PM From: caly Respond to of 518
Info on competition from a mailing list.... Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 1998 1:45 PM To: CryptoAPI@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM Subject: Re: FIPS 140-1 CSPs Lee, Bill: This past Monday Microsoft publicly announced plans to support FIPS 140-1 through a Microsoft FIPS 140-1 Cryptographic Provider in both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT 5.0. (Seemicrosoft.com This CSP, based in large part on the current Microsoft Enhanced DSS/Diffie-Hellman Cryptographic Provider, is designed for and accessible through the CryptoAPI. The CryptoAPI has so far not posed any obstacles to FIPS 140-1 certification; rather, a number of CryptoAPI design elements have greatly simplified Microsoft's pursuit of FIPS 140-1 certification and suggest that the CryptoAPI may be ideally for software-based FIPS 140-1 cryptographic modules. For example: * Pre-existing and fully-defined interface documentation * Natural cryptographic perimeter * Built-in signature checking on CSP DLLs * Crypto contained wholly within a single DLL * Authentication and key management services assisted by PStore and Data Protection API It is fact this last element in particular that other FIPS 140-1-minded CSP writers might want to take advantage of. The Data Protection API within Windows NT 5.0, for example, provides several key authentication and key management facilities that have proven quite useful during FIPS 140-1 evaluation. While FIPS 140-1 presents a strict specification of security requirements on cryptographic modules, the high level of design and quality of execution of Microsoft's CSPs written to the CryptoAPI overlay these requirements quite comfortably. Marc Jacobs Federal Security Program Manager Windows NT Security Microsoft Corporation Sent: Thursday, October 01, 1998 5:11 PM To: CryptoAPI@DISCUSS.MICROSOFT.COM Subject: Re: Algorithm Validation The Microsoft Enhanced DSS/Diffie-Hellman Crytographic Provider is currently being validated under the FIPS 140-1 cryptomodule validation program, and we expect to complete the validation process by year's end. Marc Jacobs Federal Security Program Manager Windows NT Security Microsoft Corporation