Hi Michael, At 07:59 AM 18-03-2019, Michael Richardson wrote:
I am not addressing the absolute risk of exfiltration attacks, but rather asking if having more keys in the HSM causes a relative change to the risk of exfiltration attacks.
The simple answer is no.
More keys generated might mean that the HSM is unlocked more often, but I don't think this would be the case. My understanding is that the HSMs need to be acccessed on a regular basis by the Security Officers anyway in order to sign new ZSKs.
The HSMs on the West Coast (U.S.) are activated twice a year during scheduled KSK Ceremonies by using three out of the seven "OP" cards. Physical access to the HSMs (hardware device) is under the control of the Root Zone Manager. A KSK Ceremony takes more time (not more Ceremonies) if there are more "keys" to generate. The same number of KSK Ceremonies were held for the "keys" required for the roll-over process. I have requested authorization to attend events which might entail access to a security card and the Root Zone Manager agreed to those requests. Such events are usually scheduled within a day of a KSK Ceremony. Regards, S. Moonesamy