Overview of the Cryptographic Framework

The cryptographic framework is the portion of the Oracle Solaris OS that provides cryptographic services from Sun Microsystems, Inc. and from third-party suppliers. The framework provides various services:

• Message encryption and message digest

• Message authentication codes (MACs)

• Digital signing

• Application programmer interfaces (APIs) for accessing cryptographic services

• Service provider interfaces (SPIs) for providing cryptographic services

• An administration command for managing cryptographic resources

The following figure provides an overview of the cryptographic framework. The light gray shading in the figure indicates the user-level portion of the cryptographic framework. The dark gray shading represents the kernel-level portion of the framework. Private software is indicated by a background with diagonal striping.

Figure 8–1 Overview of the Oracle Solaris Cryptographic Framework