Patent ID: 8566612

Claim:
A security processor to process incoming packets and outgoing packets, the security processor comprising: a switching system to send the outgoing packets and receive the incoming packets; a packet engine, coupled to the switching system, to handle classification processing for the incoming packets received by the packet engine from the switching system and the outgoing packets sent by the packet engine to the switching system, wherein the packet engine is one of a plurality of packet engines and substantially all of the incoming and outgoing packets to the security processor transit one of the plurality of packet engines; a cryptographic core, coupled to the packet engine and receiving the incoming packets from the switching system via the packet engine and communicating the outgoing packets to the switching system via the packet engine, to provide encryption and decryption processing for packets received from and sent to the packet engine, wherein the packet engine is interposed between the switching system and the cryptographic core; a signature database; and an intrusion detection system coupled between the cryptographic core and the packet engine and responsive to at least one packet matching a signature stored in the signature database.