Compare AWS CloudHSM Client SDK component support - AWS CloudHSM
PKCS #11 libraryCloudHSM Management Utility (CMU)Key Management Utility (KMU)JCE providerOpenSSL Dynamic EngineCNG and KSP providers

Compare AWS CloudHSM Client SDK component support

In addition to the command-line tools, Client SDK 3 contains components that enable off-loading cryptographic operations to the HSM from various platform or language-based applications. Client SDK 5 has parity with Client SDK 3, except it does not yet support CNG and KSP providers. The following table compares component availability in Client SDK 3 and Client SDK 5.

Component Client SDK 5 Client SDK 3
PKCS #11 library

Yes

Yes
JCE provider Yes Yes
OpenSSL Dynamic Engine Yes

Yes
CNG and KSP providers Yes
CloudHSM Management Utility (CMU)1 Yes Yes
Key Management Utility (KMU)1 Yes Yes
Configure tool Yes Yes

[1] CMU and KMU components are included in CloudHSM CLI with Client SDK 5.

The following sections describe the components.

PKCS #11 library

PKCS #11 is a standard for performing cryptographic operations on hardware security modules (HSMs). AWS CloudHSM offers implementations of the PKCS #11 library that are compliant with PKCS #11 version 2.40.

CloudHSM Management Utility (CMU)

The CloudHSM Management Utility (CMU) command line tool helps crypto officers manage users in the HSMs. It includes tools that create, delete, and list users, and change user passwords. For more information, see AWS CloudHSM Management Utility (CMU).

Key Management Utility (KMU)

The Key Management Utility (KMU) is a command line tool that helps crypto users (CU) manage keys on the hardware security modules (HSM). For more information, see AWS CloudHSM Key Management Utility (KMU).

JCE provider

The AWS CloudHSM JCE provider is compliant with the Java Cryptographic Architecture (JCA). The provider allows you to perform cryptographic operations on the HSM.

The JCE provider is a Linux only component that matches Linux base support. For more information, see Linux support for AWS CloudHSM Client SDK 3.

  • For Client SDK 3 requires OpenJDK 1.8

OpenSSL Dynamic Engine

The AWS CloudHSM OpenSSL Dynamic Engine allows you to offload cryptographic operations to your CloudHSM cluster through the OpenSSL API.

  • For Client SDK 3, the OpenSSL Dynamic Engine is Linux only component that does not match Linux base support. See the exclusions below.

    • Requires OpenSSL 1.0.2[f+]

    Unsupported platforms:

    • CentOS 8

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8

    • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

    These platforms ship with a version of OpenSSL incompatible with OpenSSL Dynamic Engine for Client SDK 3. AWS CloudHSM supports these platforms with OpenSSL Dynamic Engine for Client SDK 5.

  • For Client SDK 5, the OpenSSL Dynamic Engine is a Linux only component that requires OpenSSL 1.0.2, 1.1.1, or 3.x.

CNG and KSP providers

The AWS CloudHSM client for Windows includes CNG and KSP providers. Currently, only Client SDK 3 supports CNG and KSP providers.

The CNG and KSP providers is a Windows only component that matches Windows base support. For more information, see Windows support for AWS CloudHSM Client SDK 3.