Patent ID: 8094819

Claim:
A system for implementation in a computing device for cryptographic key management comprising: a key manager for at least one cryptographic channel employing cryptographic data, said key manager having memory that contains pointers to memory that contain cryptographic data used by said cryptographic system, said memory comprises a first RAM memory and a second RAM memory; said first RAM memory comprising an index RAM containing said pointers to said second RAM memory; said cryptographic data comprising cryptographic key data; and, said second RAM memory comprising a key RAM containing said key data used by said cryptographic system, said key manager including a command interface for issuing commands to said memory, said commands being selected from a group of commands including: READ, DELETE, WRITE, and ZEROIZE; a stack storage structure, the stack storage structure being connected to the second RAM memory, the stack being configured for managing free location memory in said second RAM memory, said free location memory comprising memory free of key data; and a control unit, the control unit being connected to the second RAM memory and the stack storage structure, the control unit being configured for scanning said second memory to locate free location memory, and when said free location memory has been located, the control unit is further configured for providing an address associated with said free location memory to the stack storage structure, said stack storage structure implementing a Last In First Out (LIFO) storage mechanism, wherein the address associated with said free location memory is stored in said stack storage structure as a next accessible item of said stack storage structure, said scan of said second memory being performed as a background task when no active commands from a user of said system are being processed by the system, wherein said control unit is a dedicated controller and, when a DELETE command is received by the system and an address is deleted from said index RAM, said control unit is further configured for automatically providing the deleted address to said stack storage structure.