A mechanism is a process used to implement cryptographic operations.
The CRYPT subsystem covers the mechanisms of the PKCS#11 standard as listed below.
The explanations for the various mechanisms can be found in chapter Glossary, and in chapter 12 “Mechanisms” of the PKCS#11 standard.
The prefix CKM_ in the standard stands for mechanism type.
Symmetric algorithms
Block ciphers
DES
DES3
SD2 (corresponds to RC2)
AES
Operating modes
ECB
CBC
- CTR (only AES)
- CCM (only AES)
- GCM (only AES)
Stream ciphers
SD4 (corresponds to RC4)
Generation of keys for the supported algorithms
Hash algorithms and integrity codes
MD2, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2 (SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512), RIPEMD160, HMAC-MD2, HMAC-MD5, HMAC-SHA-1, HMAC-SHA-2 (HMAC-SHA-224, HMAC-SHA-256, HMAC-SHA-384, HMAC-SHA-512), HMAC-RIPEMD160
Public key algorithms
Ciphers/key exchange algorithms
RSA (PKCS#1)
RSA (pure)
Diffie-Hellman
Signature algorithms
RSA (PKCS#1)
RSA (pure)
DSA
Generation of keys for the supported algorithms