US Patent 11941108 Authentication and control of encryption keys

An apparatus, a method, and a system are presented in which the apparatus includes an interface control circuit that may be configured to receive a message including a cryptographic keyword and a policy value. The policy value may include one or more data bits indicative of one or more policies that define allowable usage of the cryptographic keyword. The apparatus also includes a security circuit that may be configured to extract the cryptographic keyword and the policy value from the message, and to apply at least one policy of the one or more policies to usage of the cryptographic keyword in response to a determination that an authentication of the message succeeded.