From the course: ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) (2024) Cert Prep

Key management practices

From the course: ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) (2024) Cert Prep

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Key management practices

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- Cryptographic keys serve as the literal keys to unlocking information secured using encryption. Security professionals must be careful to preserve the secrecy, and security of these keys in order to maintain the integrity of their use of encryption. When generating new cryptographic keys, you must be certain to create them in a secure manner. This means creating keys that are randomly generated. The ideal encryption key is a long binary value composed of randomly selected ones and zeros. This eliminates the possibility that an attacker will be able to guess the key by figuring out how you created it because there's no rhyme or reason to its composition. It's random. In addition to using a randomly generated key, you should also use a key that's sufficiently long to avoid brute force attacks. I'll talk about those attacks later in this course, but the general idea is that you're trying to select a key that is so long that it's impossible to guess the key because there are just too many possible combinations. When you create a new key, and issue it to an end user or a system, you should take the time to securely verify the identity of that key owner. If you incorrectly issue a key to an untrusted person, you're granting that person some degree of trust. Later in this course, we'll discuss the process of creating, and issuing digital certificates to provide assurance that an end user or system is the rightful owner of a public, private key pair. Keys must also be protected during their lifespan. If a key is meant to be kept secret, such as a shared secret key used for symmetric encryption, or a private key used in asymmetric encryption, it should be stored in a location where it is not accessible to unauthorized individuals. Anyone who gains access to that key can use it as if they were the authorized owner. In addition to thinking about the secure creation and storage of keys, you should also consider the security of the end of the key's life. This may come about in two ways, through key rotation or key revocation. Each cryptographic key that you use should have a defined lifespan. Good security practice dictates the rotation of keys periodically. This way, an attacker's exploitation of a key is limited in time in the event that the key is compromised without your knowledge. A key may also be revoked by an administrator. This may occur because the end user assigned to the key is no longer with the organization or because the administrator or user has reason to believe that the key was compromised. In those cases, the key should be securely destroyed. Whenever you design a cryptographic system, you should include revocation mechanisms in that system. Later in this course, we'll talk about how you can revoke digital certificates to remove the trust relationship between a user and a public-private key pair. The key management techniques that I just discussed apply to all types of secret information that's used for authentication. You should also protect digital certificates, API Keys and any other secrets that might grant someone access to systems for information.

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