Notice2021-18868
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)
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Published
September 1, 2021
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Institute of Standards and Technology
Abstract
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invites organizations to provide letters of interest describing products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) project. This notice is the initial step for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), in collaborating with technology companies, to address cybersecurity challenges identified under the Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) project. Participation in the project is open to all interested organizations.
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 167 (Wednesday, September 1, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 167 (Wednesday, September 1, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48984-48986]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-18868]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Institute of Standards and Technology
[Docket No. 210826-0169]
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) Automation of
the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)
AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
invites organizations to provide letters of interest describing
products and technical expertise to support and demonstrate security
platforms for the Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation
Program (CMVP) project. This notice is the initial step for the
National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), in collaborating
with technology companies, to address cybersecurity challenges
identified under the Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation
Program (CMVP) project. Participation in the project is open to all
interested organizations.
DATES: Collaborative activities will commence as soon as enough
completed and signed letters of interest have been returned to address
all the necessary components and capabilities, but no earlier than
October 1, 2021.
ADDRESSES: The NCCoE is located at 9700 Great Seneca Highway,
Rockville, MD 20850. Letters of interest must be submitted to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#472637372b2e22236a24353e3733286a332234332e292007292e343369202831"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="d6b7a6a6babfb3b2fbb5a4afa6a2b9fba2b3a5a2bfb8b196b8bfa5a2f8b1b9a0">[email protected]</span></a> or via hardcopy to National Institute of
Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca Highway, Rockville,
MD 20850. Interested parties can access the letter of interest template
by visiting <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a> and completing the letter of
interest webform. NIST will announce the completion of the selection of
participants and inform the public that it will no longer accept
letters of interest for this project at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a>.
Organizations whose letters of interest are accepted will be asked to
sign a consortium Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
(CRADA) with NIST; a template CRADA can be found at: <a href="https://nccoe.nist.gov/library/nccoe-consortium-crada-example">https://nccoe.nist.gov/library/nccoe-consortium-crada-example</a>.
[[Page 48985]]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Apostol Vassilev via phone (301) 975-
3221 or email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b9d8c9c9d5d0dcdd94dacbc0c9cdd694cddccacdd0d7def9d7d0cacd97ded6cf"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a6c7d6d6cacfc3c28bc5d4dfd6d2c98bd2c3d5d2cfc8c1e6c8cfd5d288c1c9d0">[email protected]</span></a>; by mail to National
Institute of Standards and Technology, NCCoE; 9700 Great Seneca
Highway, Rockville, MD 20850. Additional details about the Automation
of the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) project are
available at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a>.
Background: The NCCoE, part of NIST, is a public-private
collaboration for accelerating the widespread adoption of integrated
cybersecurity tools and technologies. The NCCoE brings together experts
from industry, government, and academia under one roof to develop
practical, interoperable cybersecurity approaches that address the
real-world needs of complex Information Technology (IT) systems. By
accelerating dissemination and use of these integrated tools and
technologies for protecting IT assets, the NCCoE will enhance trust in
U.S. IT communications, data, and storage systems; reduce risk for
companies and individuals using IT systems; and encourage development
of innovative, job-creating cybersecurity products and services.
Process: NIST is soliciting responses from all sources of relevant
security capabilities (see below) to enter into a Cooperative Research
and Development Agreement (CRADA) to provide products and technical
expertise to support and demonstrate security platforms for the
Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)
project. The full project can be viewed at: <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a>.
Interested parties can access the template for a letter of interest
by visiting the project website at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a> and completing the
letter of interest webform. On completion of the webform, interested
parties will receive access to the letter of interest template, which
the party must complete, certify as accurate, and submit to NIST by
email or hardcopy. NIST will contact interested parties if there are
questions regarding the responsiveness of the letters of interest to
the project objective or requirements identified below. NIST will
select participants who have submitted complete letters of interest on
a first come, first served basis within each category of product
components or capabilities listed below, up to the number of
participants in each category necessary to carry out this project. When
the project has been completed, NIST will post a notice on the
Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)
project website at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a> announcing the completion of the
project and informing the public that it will no longer accept letters
of interest for this project.
Completed letters of interest should be submitted to NIST and will
be accepted on a first come, first served basis. There may be
continuing opportunity to participate even after initial activity
commences for participants who were not selected initially or have
submitted the letter interest after the selection process. Selected
participants will be required to enter into a consortium CRADA with
NIST (for reference, see ADDRESSES section above).
Objective: The Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)
validates third-party assertions that cryptographic module
implementations satisfy the requirements of Federal Information
Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-3, Security Requirements
for Cryptographic Modules. Current industry cryptographic product
development, production, and maintenance processes place significant
emphasis on time-to-market efficiency. A number of elements of the
validation process are manual in nature, and the period required for
third-party testing and government validation of cryptographic modules
is often incompatible with industry requirements. The purpose of the
project is to demonstrate the value and practicality of automation to
improve the efficiency and timeliness of CMVP operation and processes.
The proposed proof-of-concept solution(s) will integrate commercial and
open source products that leverage cybersecurity standards and
recommended practices to demonstrate the use case scenarios detailed in
the Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)
project description at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a>. This project will result
in a publicly available NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide as a Special
Publication 1800 series, a detailed implementation guide describing the
practical steps needed to implement a cybersecurity reference
implementation.
Requirements for Letters of Interest: Each responding
organization's letter of interest should identify which security
platform component(s) or capability(ies) it is offering. Letters of
interest should not include company proprietary information, and all
components and capabilities must be commercially available. Components
are listed in section 3 of the Automation of the Cryptographic Module
Validation Program (CMVP) project description at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a> and include, but are not limited to:
<bullet> Validation authority server
<bullet> ACV proxy server
<bullet> ACV client
<bullet> Hardware or software cryptographic modules
<bullet> Host processors for software cryptographic modules
<bullet> Network devices supporting web-based exchange of information
in JSON format
<bullet> Harnesses for integration of ACV clients with hardware or
software cryptographic modules
<bullet> Automated cryptographic module testing expertise
Each responding organization's letter of interest should identify
how its products help address one or more of the following desired
characteristics and properties in section 1 of the Automation of the
Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) project description at
<a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a>:
<bullet> Support necessary schemas and protocols for evidence
submission and validation for a scalable application programming
interface (API) based architecture
<bullet> Support standard tests for the functional tests of specific
classes of technologies (e.g., software modules) and corresponding
reporting of functional and non-functional security requirements
<bullet> Be compatible with an infrastructure required to support a new
automated validation program architecture
<bullet> Include reusable test harnesses for test automation for
different types of modules within the program architecture
<bullet> Support maintaining validation within a changing operational
environment
<bullet> Support validation in third-party operational environments
(e.g., cloud providers, contracted environments)
<bullet> Support identification of positive and negative impacts that
the new automation program may have on cryptographic product
development,
[[Page 48986]]
production, integration, and testing organizations, including lessons
learned
<bullet> Contribute to recommend policies and best practices for the
automated validation scope in appropriate NIST documents
<bullet> Support a roadmap for migrating organizations and their
customers from the current human-effort-centric CMVP to the new
automated program, including recommended practices based on lessons
learned
<bullet> Broadly support improvements in cryptographic modules across
all vendors participating in the CMVP through voluntary sharing of test
data (e.g., seeds or test vectors) that result in failures to improve
regression testing for module vendors
In their letters of interest, responding organizations need to
acknowledge the importance of and commit to provide:
1. Access for all participants' project teams to component
interfaces and the organization's experts necessary to make functional
connections among security platform components.
2. Support for development and demonstration of the Automation of
the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) project, which will
be based on the most recent versions of FIPS 140, SP 800-140, and
Handbook (HB) 150-17 and conducted in a manner consistent with the most
recent version of the following standards and guidance: FIPS 200, SP
800-37, SP 800-52, SP 800-53, SP 800-63, and SP 1800-16. Additional
details about the Automation of the Cryptographic Module Validation
Program (CMVP) project are available at <a href="https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation">https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/projects/building-blocks/applied-cryptography/cmvp-automation</a>.
NIST cannot guarantee that all of the products proposed by
respondents will be used in the demonstration. Each prospective
participant will be expected to work collaboratively with NIST staff
and other project participants under the terms of the consortium CRADA
in the development of the Automation of the Cryptographic Module
Validation Program (CMVP) project. Prospective participants'
contribution to the collaborative effort will include assistance in
establishing the necessary interface functionality, connection and set-
up capabilities and procedures, demonstration harnesses, environmental
and safety conditions for use, integrated platform user instructions,
and demonstration plans and scripts necessary to demonstrate the
desired capabilities. Each participant will train NIST personnel, as
necessary, to operate its product in capability demonstrations.
Following successful demonstrations, NIST will publish a description of
the security platform and its performance characteristics sufficient to
permit other organizations to develop and deploy security platforms
that meet the security objectives of the Automation of the
Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) project. These
descriptions will be public information.
Under the terms of the consortium CRADA, NIST will support
development of interfaces among participants' products by providing IT
infrastructure, laboratory facilities, office facilities, collaboration
facilities, and staff support to component composition, security
platform documentation, and demonstration activities.
The dates of the demonstration of the Automation of the
Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) project capability will
be announced on the NCCoE website at least two weeks in advance at
<a href="https://nccoe.nist.gov/">https://nccoe.nist.gov/</a>. The expected outcome will demonstrate how the
components of the solutions that address Automation of the
Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) can enhance security
capabilities that provide assurance of mitigation of identified risks
while continuing to meet industry sectors' compliance requirements.
Participating organizations will gain from the knowledge that their
products are interoperable with other participants' offerings.
For additional information on the NCCoE governance, business
processes, and NCCoE operational structure, visit the NCCoE website
<a href="https://nccoe.nist.gov/">https://nccoe.nist.gov/</a>.
Alicia Chambers,
NIST Executive Secretariat.
[FR Doc. 2021-18868 Filed 8-31-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P
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