Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) White Paper

Chapter 1 15

What Is CDSA?

Figure 1-3 Example of CDSA APIs Used for Applications vs. Shared

Libraries

CDSA in the Context of Other Security Applications

Growth of Internet trafﬁc and the proliferation of e-commerce opportunities have prompted

HP to offer the CDSA functionality freely for use by customers who develop and deploy

security applications. The increased need for Internet security features creates an

opportunity that CDSA functionality can serve well.

While CDSA provides the raw building-blocks for doing cryptography, for an application to be

secure may require use of other, higher-level set of protocols (among them, SSL, S/MIME,

PGP, or SET). These protocols not only provide a higher level structuring for the results of

primitive cryptographic operations, but also ensure cryptographic interoperability between

differing platforms. Thus, when Internet applications developers ﬁeld their products, they

might employ the SSL or S/MIME protocols to ensure interoperability between different

applications. Broadly speaking, these high-level security protocols safeguard the

transmission of e-commerce information and serve as defacto standards of secure

communication.

The following ﬁgure shows CDSA with higher-level protocols and user applications.

Common Security Services Manager (CSSM) APIs

Certificate

Library (CL)

Shared Library

Applications

Use CSSM_CL* APIs for developing applications using the

Use CL_* APIs for developing CL add-in modules

CL shared library