# Security

The security architecture of emCA ensures the protection of the CA’s private key and issued certificates against physical, logical, and network threats.

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**Physical Security**

* **HSM (Hardware Security Module)**\
  The CA’s private key is stored in an HSM, which provides tamper detection and key destruction in the event of physical attacks.
* **Isolation**\
  The HSM is isolated from the rest of the emCA system to prevent physical and side-channel attacks.

**Logical Security**

* **Encryption**\
  All communication between emCA components is encrypted using TLS/SSL protocols to protect data integrity and confidentiality.
* **Access Control**\
  emCA restricts access to authorized users through role-based access control (RBAC), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and audit logging.
* **Audit Logging**\
  emCA logs all activities for monitoring and security incident detection.

**Data Security**

* **Encryption at Rest and in Transit**

  Sensitive data, certificate metadata, and audit logs, is encrypted at rest and in transit using AES-256.
* **Key Management**\
  Private keys are securely stored, with strict access control policies enforced.
* **Backup and Recovery**\
  Data backups are encrypted and stored in secure, access-controlled environments. Backup data retention and disposal are managed according to defined lifecycle policies to ensure compliance.

**Role Based Access Control**

To ensure security, the emCA application is designed such that each role has a unique set of permissions. The following are the roles and their corresponding duties.

**CA Administrator**

* **Initial setup:** Completes the initial setup process of the emCA application.
* License registration: Generates a license request and uploads the license to register the emCA application.
* **User management:** Creates and manages Administrator users.
* **Certificate authority (CA) management:** Deletes Root CA, CA, and Sub/Issuing CA certificates and key pairs.

**Administrator**

* **Certificate profile management:** Creates and manages certificate profiles.
* **Key profile management:** Creates and manages key profiles.
* **User management:** Creates and manages Officer, Auditor, and Operator users.

**Officer**

* **CA key generation:** Generates CA keys.
* **CA hierarchy management:** Creates and manages the CA hierarchy.
* **Certificate revocation list (CRL)/Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) service management:** Creates and manages CRL/OCSP services.
* **Certificate management:** Creates and manages CA, user, and OCSP certificates using certificate profiles created by the Administrator.
* **Scheduler configuration:** Configures the scheduler.
* **Certificate revocation and reinstatement:** Revokes and reinstates certificates as needed.
* **Key recovery:** Performs complete key recovery activities.

**Auditor**

* **Audit log management:** Views and downloads audit logs.
* **Report generation:** Generates various types of reports.

**Operator**

* Backup and restore: Performs backup and restore operations.