Open-source IT-level security tools, lean, fast and portable

February 22, 2012 // Julien Happich

yaSSL, provider of open-source embedded SSL, has made IT-level security tools available for the Open Source Community, ensuring that mature, advanced security tools like Kerberos, wpa_supplicant, and OpenSSH are readily available for devices.

By making security services commonly used for enterprise authentication and encryption available for Android and other device platforms, yaSSL enables developers to simplify and secure device connectivity and to close the door on hackers trying to break through Internet security using the backdoor of a device, such as a router, smartphone, printer, or game console.

“Our homes and businesses depend on network-connected devices,” noted Larry Stefonic, Founder of yaSSL. “The need for secure, authenticated exchange, whether for a gaming console or an Android smartphone, has become essential. We understood the pain developers had creating their own security solution or kludging tools together that were then slow and took too much memory. We've reduced that stress by providing the resources needed to protect and secure both the network and the device.”

yaSSL’s commitment to the Open-Source Community has sparked a number of efforts:

Kerberos to Android―yaSSL ported Kerberos and a Java interface for the Generic Security Services API (GSSAPI) to enable development for the Android platform with the same secure, mutually authenticated and encrypted communication that’s the de facto standard used by Microsoft, Google, Apple and Linux on enterprise and desktop computers. To provide an easy entry point for Android developers interested in Kerberos, yaSSL created a sample Android NDK application that wraps the functionality of kinit, klist, kvno, kdestroy, and Java GSSAPI client into a simple GUI front-end. With these capabilities in place, developers know their applications prevent eavesdropping and replay attacks. yaSSL also embedded CyaSSL’s cryptography library CTaoCrypt in Kerberos to deliver very fast cryto implementations that are 20 times smaller and use less memory than the standard OpenSSL.

OpenSSH for embedded RTOSs—Used for secure remote access, OpenSSH encrypts passwords, sessions, and data for common UNIX and desktop environments, but is far too big and slow for the typical device. By using CyaSSL to do the heavy cryptography for OpenSSH, yaSSL introduces OpenSSH secure access tools that are smaller, faster and more portable. With very fast stream ciphers (e.g., RABBIT and HC-128) and public key support (e.g., NTRU), CyaSSL enables secure remote access for any CyaSSL-supported RTOS environments, including embedded Linux, iOS, QNX, VxWorks, and others. With an already integrated OpenSSH/CyaSSL solution, developers gain secure file copy and remote access to embedded devices without writing their own or kludging different solutions together, greatly decreasing time to market. CyaSSL’s crypto libraries are simply implemented via a build option.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) for devices—wpa_supplicant, a WPA and WPA2 client for 802.11i, offers a secure, out-of-the-box wireless LAN for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Windows. wpa_supplicant’s small code size and clean design make it ideal for secure key negotiations that control the wireless connection of embedded devices. Integration with CyaSSL takes support a step further by securing the Internet connection and adding very fast cipher suites, such as TLS_RSA_WITH_128_CBC_SHA and TLS_NTRU_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA that are not part of the default installation. With support for embedded Linux, iOS, Android, QNX, VxWorks, and other RTOSs, CyaSSL significantly reduces both development time and cost and eliminates the need for developers to write, purchase, or patch their own solution.

Visit yaSSL at www.yassl.com

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