Demonstration of Secure Key Management Solution with Use Case in Permissioned Blockchain

In a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), it is important to store the private keys in a well-protected storage as they provide ownership and control over the digital assets. The compromise of private keys may bring the security breakdown of the system with no possible recovery. This article focuses on the security considerations of the PKI entities in distributed applications using permissioned blockchain i.e., Hyperledger Fabric (HLF). The PKI based Certificate Authority (CA) in HLF is responsible for identity management in the framework by generating the public-private key pairs and certificates for each entity in the fabric. The private keys of the entities are stored in a readily accessible format. There are various protected storages like hot and cold wallets, secures databases that have been discussed throughout the literature. Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) are the devices that follow defacto cryptographic standard for securing keys in any cryptographic implementation. This paper presents the prototype for integration of our indigenous CA for HLF with HSM. The practical demonstration of the study is done using softHSM an emulation of physical HSM that is available in open source.