nrf_security drivers

Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver
- Enabling the Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver
- Using the Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver
nrf_oberon driver
- Enabling the nrf_oberon driver
Built-in Mbed TLS
- Enabling the built-in Mbed TLS support
Legacy Mbed TLS
- Enabling legacy Mbed TLS support

The nrf_security module supports multiple enabled PSA drivers at the same time. This mechanism is intended to extend the available feature set of hardware-accelerated cryptography or to provide alternative implementations of the PSA Crypto APIs.

You can enabling a cryptographic feature or algorithm using PSA Crypto API configurations that follow the format PSA_WANT_ALG_XXXX.

Enabling more than one PSA driver may add support for additional key sizes or modes of operation.

It is possible to disable specific features on the PSA driver level to optimize the code size.

The nrf_security module supports the following PSA drivers:

Arm CryptoCell cc3xx binary
nrf_oberon binary

Note

Whenever this documentation mentions ‘original’ Mbed TLS, it refers to the open-source Arm Mbed TLS project, not the customized version available in Zephyr. There is an option to utilize a ‘built-in’ driver, which corresponds to the software-implemented cryptography from the ‘original’ Mbed TLS deliverables. This is provided to ensure that the cryptographic toolbox supports all requested features.

Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver 

The Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver is a is a closed-source binary that provides hardware-accelerated cryptography using the Arm CryptoCell cc310/cc312 hardware.

The Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver is only available on the following devices:

nRF52840
nRF9160
nRF5340

Enabling the Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver 

The Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver can be enabled by setting the CONFIG_PSA_CRYPTO_DRIVER_CC3XX Kconfig option.

Using the Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver 

To use the nrf_cc3xx_mbedcrypto library PSA driver, the Arm CryptoCell cc310/cc312 hardware must be first initialized.

The Arm CryptoCell cc3xx hardware is initialized in the hw_cc310.c file, located under nrf/drivers/hw_cc310/, and is controlled with the CONFIG_HW_CC3XX Kconfig option. The Kconfig option has a default value of ‘y’ when cc3xx is available in the SoC.

nrf_oberon driver 

The nrf_oberon crypto library is distributed as a closed-source binary that provides select cryptographic algorithms optimized for use in nRF devices. This provides faster execution than the original Mbed TLS implementation.

The nrf_oberon driver provides support for AES ciphers, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, ECDH and ECDSA using NIST curve secp224r1 and secp256r1, and ECJPAKE using NIST curve secp256r1.

Enabling the nrf_oberon driver 

The nrf_oberon crypto library PSA driver can be enabled by setting the CONFIG_PSA_CRYPTO_DRIVER_OBERON Kconfig option.

Built-in Mbed TLS 

Built-in Mbed TLS uses the open-source software from the Arm Mbed TLS project with minimal adjustments in PSA Core and PSA driver scope to support multiple drivers.

The fork of Arm Mbed TLS project used by nrf_security is checked out using west and is located in the folder called mbedtls in the root of nRF Connect SDK repository.

Built-in Mbed TLS support can be used to add support for features not available in the Arm CryptoCell cc3xx driver, for example AES-256 or ECC Brainpool curve types.

Similarly, you can use the built-in Mbed TLS to add support for features not available in the nrf_oberon driver, for example to add support for more ECC curve types.

Enabling the built-in Mbed TLS support 

To enable the built-in Mbed TLS support, set the CONFIG_PSA_CRYPTO_DRIVER_BUILTIN Kconfig option to true.

It is generally not needed to enable built-in Mbed TLS support manually, as there is Kconfig logic that does that, depending on the enabled cryptographic features or algorithms and the configuration of PSA drivers.

Legacy Mbed TLS 

Some legacy Mbed TLS APIs are still supported, for instance for TLS and DTLS support and backwards compatibility.

Enabling legacy APIs requires enabling one of the available PSA drivers.

Note

The legacy Mbed TLS APIs no longer support the glued functionality.
Legacy configurations no longer have an effect on the configurations for the secure image of a TF-M build.

Enabling legacy Mbed TLS support 

The legacy Mbed TLS APIs can be configured by setting the option kconfig:CONFIG_NORDIC_SECURITY_BACKEND instead of setting the option kconfig:CONFIG_NRF_SECURITY.

Additionally either CONFIG_CC3XX_BACKEND or CONFIG_OBERON_BACKEND must be enabled.

Note

Enabling the CryptoCell by using CONFIG_CC3XX_BACKEND in a non-secure image of a TF-M build will have no effect.