YubiHSM 2 can be used as a comprehensive cryptographic toolbox for a wide range of open source and commercial applications. The most common use case being hardware-based digital signature generation and verification.

YubiHSM 2 offers a compelling option for secure generation, storage and management of digital keys including essential capabilities to generate, write, sign, decrypt, hash and wrap keys.
Benefits

• Cost-effective HSM solution
• Easy deployment
• Secure key storage and operations

Use Cases

Enhance Protection for Cryptographic Keys
YubiHSM 2 offers a compelling option for secure generation, storage and management of keys. Key protection is done in the secure on-chip hardware isolated from operations on the server. Most common use cases involve protecting of the certificate authorities (CAs) root key. YubiHSM 2 capabilities include: generate, write, sign, decrypt, hash and wrapping keys.

Enable Hardware based Cryptographic Operations

YubiHSM 2 can be used as a comprehensive cryptographic toolbox for low-volume operations in conjunction with a huge set of open source and commercial applications spanning many different products and services. Most common use case involve on-chip hardware based processing for signature generation and verification.

Secure Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services
YubiHSM 2 can provide hardware backed keys for your Microsoft-based PKI implementation. Deploying YubiHSM 2 to your Microsoft Active Directory Certificate services not only protects the CA root keys but also protects all signing and verification services using the root key.

• Secure key storage and operations
• Extensive cryptographic capabilities: RSA, ECC, ECDSA (ed25519), SHA-2, AES
• Secure session between HSM and application
• Role-based access controls for key management and key usage
• 16 concurrent connections
• Optionally network sharable
• Remote management
• Unique “Nano” form factor, low-power usage
• M of N wrap key Backup and Restore
• Interfaces via YubiHSM KSP, PKCS#11, and native libraries
• Tamper evident Audit Logging

Feature Details

Secure key storage and operations

Create, import, and store keys, then perform all crypto operations in the HSM hardware to prevent theft of keys while at rest or in use. This protects against both logical attacks against the server, such as zero-day exploits or malware, and physical theft of a server or its hard drive.
Extensive cryptographic capabilities

YubiHSM 2 supports hashing, key wrapping, asymmetric signing and decryption operations including advanced signing using ed25519.  Attestation is also supported for asymmetric key pairs generated on-device.
Secure session between HSM and application

The integrity and privacy of commands and data in transit between the HSM and applications are protected using a mutually authenticated, integrity and confidentiality protected tunnel.

Role-based access controls for key management and key usage

All cryptographic keys and other objects in the HSM belong to one or more security domains. Access rights are assigned for each authentication key at creation time which allow a specific set of cryptographic or management operations to be performed per security domain. Admins assign rights to authentication keys based on its use case, such as a event monitoring app that needs the ability to read all audit logs in the HSM, or a Registration Authority that needs to issue (sign) end user digital certificates, or a domain security admin who needs to create and delete crypto keys.
16 concurrent connections

Multiple applications can establish sessions with a YubiHSM to perform cryptographic operations. Sessions can be automatically terminated after inactivity or be long-lived to improve performance by eliminating session creation time.
Network Sharable

To increase the flexibility of deployments, the YubiHSM 2 can be made available for use over the network by applications on other servers. This can be especially advantageous on a physical server that is hosting multiple virtual machines.
Remote Management

Easily manage multiple deployed YubiHSMs remotely for the entire enterprise – eliminate on-call staff complexity and travel expense.
Unique “Nano” form factor, low-power usage

The Yubico “Nano” form factor allows the HSM to be inserted completely inside a USB-A port so it’s completely concealed – no external parts that protrude out of the server back or front chassis. It uses minimal power, max of 30mA, for cost-savings on your power budget.
M of N wrap key Backup and Restore

Backing up and deploying cryptographic keys on multiple HSMs is a critical component of an enterprise security architecture, but it’s a risk to allow a single individual to have that ability. The YubiHSM supports setting M of N rules on the wrap key used to export keys for backup or transport, so that multiple administrators are required to import and decrypt a key to make it usable on additional HSMs. For example in an enterprise, the Active Directory root CA private key might be key wrapped for 7 administrators (M=7) and at least 4 of them (N=4) are required to import and unwrap (decrypt) the key in the new HSM.
Interfaces via YubiHSM KSP, PKCS#11, and native libraries

Crypto enabled applications can leverage the YubiHSM via Yubico’s Key Storage Provider (KSP) for Microsoft’s CNG or industry-standard PKCS#11. Native libraries are also available on Windows, Linux and macOS to enable more direct interaction with the device’s capabilities.
Tamper evident Audit Logging

The YubiHSM internally stores a log of all management and crypto operation events that occur in the device and that log can be exported for monitoring and reporting. Each event (row) in the log is hash chained with the previous row and signed so that it’s possible to determine if any events are modified or deleted.