corePKCS11 Library

Introduction

PKCS #11 is a standardised and widely used API for manipulating common cryptographic objects. It is important because the functions it specifies allow application software to use, create, modify, and delete cryptographic objects, without ever exposing those objects to the application’s memory. For example, FreeRTOS AWS reference integrations use a small subset of the PKCS #11 API to, among other things, access the secret (private) key necessary to create a network connection that is authenticated and secured by the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol – without the application ever ‘seeing’ the key.

PKCS #11 is maintained by the OASIS PKCS#11 Technical Committee.