Abstract: An apparatus for performing cryptographic primitives includes a processor that is configured to receive an instruction to perform a cryptographic primitive, where the instruction includes one or more operands, at least one of the operands indicates one or more data structures that include values for the cryptographic primitive, and where the values include a first value indicating a mode of encryption that indicates an order of performing an encryption operation and an authentication operation and a second value indicating a cipher type; and perform the cryptographic primitive and store an output of the cryptographic primitive in an output data structure.

Abstract: Methods and systems for executing a communication protocol are provided. One method includes receiving, by a security module of a first computing device, an API call to authenticate a certificate received from a second computing device to establish a communication session between the computing devices; selecting, by the security module, an authentication module to authenticate the certificate; generating, by an encryption module of the security module, a shared secret key for the communication session based on a private key of the first computing device and a public key of the second computing device; encrypting, by the encryption module, the shared secret key using an algorithm negotiated between the first computing device and the second computing device; generating, by the security module, an encrypted message for the second computing device; and transmitting, by the first computing device, the encrypted shared secret key and message to the second computing device.