Release Notes

4 Changes
RSA BSAFE Micro Edition Suite 4.4 Release Notes
Changes
This release of MES is designed to include the following changes:
• Updated operating environment support.
For more information, see Operating Environment Information.
• Fixes for specific issues.
For more information, see Enhancements and Resolved Issues.
• The two separate signature files, which were used for the FIPS 140-2 module
integrity check, are now embedded into the main FIPS 140-2 module shared
library file.
• Initialization Vector (IV) generation for symmetric key encryption is updated for
compliance with the latest FIPS 140-2 Implementation Guidance (IG A.5). For
more information, see Symmetric Key Encryption > Automatic IV Generation
in the RSA BSAFE Micro Edition Suite Developers Guide.
• When using AES in XTS mode, the two keys concatenated to create the single
double-length key are checked to ensure they are different.
• A minimum security strength of 112 bits is enforced by default for cryptographic
operations that use asymmetric keys. The minimum security strength is changed
using a call to
R_LIB_CTX_set_info(), R_CR_CTX_set_info() or
R_SSL_CTX_set_info().
• Default Diffie-Hellman (DH) key exchange, key generation, and key parameter
generation are updated to use approved methods outlined in SP 800-56A instead
of the IEEE P1363 specification.
The default key exchange and key generation implementations allow the use of
legacy parameters, which might not have the sub-prime value available.
• When creating asymmetric key objects,
R_PKEY, for DH keys using
R_PKEY_from_file() or R_PKEY_from_file_ef(), a URI that
corresponds to parameters outlined in SP 800-56A can be specified.
• Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) parameters and keys are generated using
approved methods outlined in SP 800-56A.
• For RSA key generation:
– The new default algorithm is FIPS 186-3, formerly X9.31. X9.31 cannot be
used in FIPS mode, but is still available in the FIPS library.
– Minimum key size allowed for RSA FIPS 186-4 compliant key generation,
R_CR_RSA_KEY_GENERATION_FIPS186_3 and
R_CR_RSA_KEY_GENERATION, is 2048 bits.
• Hardening of the Chinese Remainder Theory (CRT) optimization for the RSA
signature algorithm to better withstand attack.
• RSA signature generation and verification using SHA-512/256 are updated to
correct the algorithm identifier. Signature verification accepts both the new
algorithm identifier and the previous incorrect identifier value.
• The deprecated SSL context method
R_SSL_v23_method is removed.