# AES The Pico HSM supports AES secret key generation and CBC encryption/decryption. However, OpenSC does not provide AES support for sc-hsm driver. Instead, the `sc-hsm-embedded` module is used. First, we setup the tool: ``` alias sc-tool=pkcs11-tool --module /path/to/libsc-hsm-pkcs11.so ``` ## Secret key generation Pico HSM supports AES keys with 128, 192 and 256 bits. To generate a secret 256 bits AES key: ``` $ sc-tool -l --pin 648219 --keygen --key-type AES:32 --id 12 --label "AES32" Using slot 0 with a present token (0x1) Key generated: Secret Key Object; AES length 32 label: AES32 ID: 12 Usage: encrypt, decrypt Access: sensitive, always sensitive, never extractable, local ``` For 128 bits, use the `--key-type aes:16`, for 192 bits, `aes:24`, and for 256 bits, `aes:32`. For lack of AES support in AES, `pkcs15-tool -D` does not list AES keys. Instead, they can be listed with: ``` $ sc-tool -l --pin 648219 --list-object --type secrkey Using slot 0 with a present token (0x1) Secret Key Object; AES length 32 label: AES32 ID: 12 Usage: encrypt, decrypt Access: sensitive, always sensitive, never extractable, local ``` ## Encryption and decryption Once a secret AES key is generated, a content can be encrypted and decrypted symmetrically: ``` $ echo "This is a text." | sc-tool -l --pin 648219 --encrypt --id 12 --mechanism aes-cbc > crypted.aes ``` The file `crypted.aes` contains the ciphered string with the AES key generated previously. To decrypt the message, the inverse operation: ``` $ cat crypted.aes | sc-tool -l --pin 648219 --decrypt --id 12 --mechanism aes-cbc Using slot 0 with a present token (0x1) Using decrypt algorithm AES-CBC This is a text. ``` AES-CBC it is a block operation and it requires an input size multiple of 16 bytes. Thus, for a trivial data, a padding operation has to be performed beforehand.