Security
Synaptics has a long history of creating secure products, from Fingerprint Sensors to Video Content Protection (HDCP etc). Employees have regular training on security awareness. Synaptics is an active member of several industry groups:
Synaptics follows Best Practice Security Vulnerability Management and has a Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT). We are an official *CVE Numbering Authority* (CNA).
DL-7450 Security
Synaptics takes a standardized approach to Security. The DL-7450 has a secure boot processor, and hardware accelerator for cryptography functions (e.g. AES128/256). It also has locked One Time Programmable (OTP) Elements provisioned in the silicon factory. The OTP elements are hardened against physical silicon attack. The chis has secure CPU functionality with anti-side channel attack protection built in. The boot processor and OTP provides a secure zone for cryptographic functions.
The DL-7450 has a small trusted computing base. The primary boot code is stored in ROM and is therefore immutable. It is heavily reviewed and validated, thus reducing the surface area for attacks. The primary bootloader cryptographically validates all other code. The primary boot code is deliberately small with low complexity and manages the cryptographic primitives. More complex security algorithms are in later layers and based on the primitives and is updatable in case vulnerabilities are discovered. This provides the DL-7450 with a root of trust (RoT). Secure assets, such as cryptographic keys, are stored in a secure OTP Vault. All critical data is encrypted, and has mitigations against single bit error attacks. The OTP vault is hardened against silicon level attacks. The key types stored in OTP are
Application code signatures
Digital content Protection keys and certificates
Unique Serial Number
Silicon type identifier
The on-chip Security processor is isolated from other processors, hardened against fault attacks, hardened against side channel scanning and linked to a hardware AES 128/256 accelerator. This makes it Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) prepared/ resistant.
The hardware-based root of trust ensures that the DL-7450 and its identity cannot be separated, thus preventing device forgery or spoofing. Each DL-7450 is identified by an unforgeable cryptographic key. Keys and other assets are provisioned at manufacture time and stored in the encrypted and hardened OTP vault. The keys are generated and protected by our security signing release hardware. This ensures a tamper-resistant, secured hardware root of trust from factory to end user.
DL-7450 cryptography is based on Industry standard algorithms. It has a built-in cryptographic core with AES 128/256 accelerator and programmable modes. Primary security is through AES-CCM (Counter with CBC-MAC). This is a mode approved by NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and is suited to managing integrity of controlled/fixed systems such as DL-7450. Security Best Practice recommends that bulk ciphers are now expected to be an AEAD or Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data algorithm, meaning that it can not only encrypt the data but also authenticate it. The AES-CCM conforms to this requirement.
Defense-in-depth provides for multiple layers of security and thus multiple mitigations against each threat. Each stage of the boot and application process is protected by the previous stage. Successive Stages cannot run unless validated. All Components are protected using industry approved cryptographic algorithms (e.g. NIST). Once a secure system is running, then only signed encrypted modules can be further loaded.
Internet-of-Things (IoT) Security The DL-7450 can be purposed as an IoT device. For example, it could be registered in a cloud IoT connectivity provider such as Azure IoT Hub. The DL-7450 uses the latest security protocols e.g. TLS1.3, as we control. We can leverage our hardware root-of-trust and cryptographic enginers to provide industry-standard client certificates and support client verifcation during Transport Layer Security (TLS) handshakes. Partner application payloads can be encrypted using the most secure cipher suits, such as Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman for perfect forward secrecy (PFS), in order to keep data confidential and maintain its integrity. We can also leverage the hardware root of trust in the DL-7450 to store immutable security credentials, and manage the data payload - this allows the communication engine and the IoT Cloud/client data collection to be separated but still secure.
The device software is automatically updated if required, both to add features and to correct known vulnerabilities or security breaches. These updates require no intervention from the product manufacturer or the end user. The updates are managed though Microsoft Windows Update.
Errors in device software or hardware are typical in emerging security attacks. Runtime telemetry is stored in an encrypted log file and may be used for remote diagnostics. The DL-7450 SDK for application developers can offer the option to retrieve telemetry for real time analysis and mitigation.
Secure Software Development process and Life Cycle
Synaptics follows audited security processes for managing key assets:
- Secure Signing machine processes
Certicom (for OTP)
Air-Gapped Hardware Signing Machines (HSMs) for Secure firmware updates
- Code Quality tools (used on check-in and build)
Code scanning for consistency/adherence to code guidelines
Code Scanning for security vulnerabilities in third-party libraries
The DL-7450 has an associated risk analysis and risk registers for security
- Regular release processes
formalized release checklists and signing (including security checks)
External libraries (SBoM - Software Bill of Materials) are managed and updated if necessary
Encrypted/Signed and authenticated code for in-field updates