A Proposed Cryptography Key Management in Software-Defined Networking (SDN)
Huda AL-Hamdani, Wesam S. Bhaya · 2023
Software-defined networks (SDNs) separate the control and data planes, consolidating control functions in a central entity called the controller. However, this dynamic nature poses new challenges, specifically the inability to secure the network and the need for secure communication between network devices without impacting network speed and performance. Cryptography key management is essential to network security, but traditional methods are often complex and difficult to manage in SDN environments. This paper proposes a key management scheme to achieve secure distribution of RSA certificate keys, which can then be used to encrypt data sent over the network. We propose a new approach to cryptography key management in SDN with an approach that prevents unauthorised access to these keys using a physical Mac address. It is designed to be more flexible, scalable, and secure. The proposed approach is based on using a hierarchical key management system that allows administrators to manage keys for different network devices and applications easily. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we conducted a series of experiments using a testbed implementation of an SDN network. The results show that the proposed approach effectively manages cryptography keys in SDN environments while providing strong security guarantees and maintaining high performance. Overall, the proposed cryptography key management approach represents a significant step forward in securing SDN networks and has the potential to be widely adopted in the future.