SAES internal peripheral

Revision as of 09:29, 3 December 2021 by Registered User

Applicable for STM32MP13x lines

1 Article purpose[edit]

The purpose of this article is to:

  • briefly introduce the SAES peripheral and its main features
  • indicate the level of security supported by this hardware block
  • explain how it can be allocated to the runtime contexts and linked to the corresponding software components
  • explain, when necessary, how to configure the SAES peripheral.

2 Peripheral overview[edit]

The SAES peripheral provides hardware acceleration to encrypt or decrypt data using the AES[1] algorithms. It supports 2 key sizes (128 and 256 bits) and different chaining modes. It incorporates protections against differential power analysis (DPA) and related side-channel attacks.

2.1 Features[edit]

Refer to the STM32MP13 reference manuals for the complete list of features, and to the software components, introduced below, to see which features are implemented.

2.2 Security support[edit]

The SAES is a secure peripheral (under ETZPC control).

3 Peripheral usage and associated software[edit]

3.1 Boot time[edit]

The SAES instance is used to decrypt firmware.

3.2 Runtime[edit]

3.2.1 Overview[edit]

SAES instance can be allocated to:

  • the Arm® Cortex®-A7 secure core to be controlled in OP-TEE by the SAES OP-TEE driver through the CIPHER framework and AUTHENC framework.

or

Chapter Peripheral assignment describes which peripheral instance can be assigned to which context.

3.2.2 Software frameworks[edit]

Domain Peripheral Software components Comment
OP-TEE Linux
Domain SAES OP-TEE SAES driver Linux Crypto framework

3.2.3 Peripheral configuration[edit]

The configuration is applied by the firmware running in the context to which the peripheral is assigned. The configuration can be done alone via the STM32CubeMX tool for all internal peripherals, and then manually completed (particularly for external peripherals), according to the information given in the corresponding software framework article.

3.2.4 Peripheral assignment[edit]

Click on the right to expand the legend...

STM32MP13IPsOverview.png

Check boxes illustrate the possible peripheral allocations supported by STM32 MPU Embedded Software:

  • means that the peripheral can be assigned () to the given runtime context.
  • means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given runtime context, but this configuration is not supported in STM32 MPU Embedded Software distribution.
  • is used for system peripherals that cannot be unchecked because they are statically connected in the device.

Refer to How to assign an internal peripheral to an execution context for more information on how to assign peripherals manually or via STM32CubeMX.
The present chapter describes STMicroelectronics recommendations or choice of implementation. Additional possiblities might be described in STM32MP13 reference manuals.

Domain Peripheral Runtime allocation Comment
Instance Cortex-A7
secure
(OP-TEE)
Cortex-A7
non-secure
(Linux)
Security SAES SAES Assignment (single choice)

4 How to go further[edit]

5 References[edit]