How should a (Application) Server securly authenticate itstelf at a HSM
I am facing a infrastructure question. If I do IT outsourcing I want to place my HSM with all my private keys with my application servers in the data center.
As the application server needs the authenticate itself to the HSM the usage of the private keys which are stored inside the HSM are pretty save. Never the less the operations team has access to the applications servers and therefor they can read and steal my authentication credentials which I use. In my opinion it has no benefit to use client authentication via certificate over a simple user/password authentication. Both might be stolen by my operations teams.
How do you handle such scenarios where the operations team is marked as "untrusted"?


How should a (Application) Server securly authenticate itstelf at a HSM
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I am facing a infrastructure question. If I do IT outsourcing I want to place my HSM with all my private keys with my application servers in the data center.
As the application server needs the authenticate itself to the HSM the usage of the private keys which are stored inside the HSM are pretty save. Never the less the operations team has access to the applications servers and therefor they can read and steal my authentication credentials which I use. In my opinion it has no benefit to use client authentication via certificate over a simple user/password authentication. Both might be stolen by my operations teams.
How do you handle such scenarios where the operations team is marked as "untrusted"?

