The Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) is a joint American and Canadian security accreditation program for cryptographic modules. The program is available to any vendors who seek to have their products certified for use by the

U.S. Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executi ...

and regulated industries (such as financial and health-care institutions) that collect, store, transfer, share and disseminate " sensitive, but not classified" information. All of the tests under the CMVP are handled by third-party laboratories that are accredited as Cryptographic Module Testing Laboratories by the

National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program The National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in USA, offers accreditation for testing and calibration laboratories across various fields. NVLAP evaluates ...

(NVLAP). Product certifications under the CMVP are performed in accordance with the requirements of

FIPS 140-3 The Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 140-3 (FIPS PUB 140-3) is a U.S. government computer security standard used to approve cryptographic modules. The title is ''Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules''. Initial publica ...

. The CMVP was established by the U.S.

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

(NIST) and the

Communications Security Establishment The Communications Security Establishment (CSE; , ''CST''), formerly (from 2008-2014) called the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), is the Government of Canada's national cryptologic agency. It is responsible for foreign signal ...

(CSE) of the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

in July 1995. The Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP), which provides guidelines for validation testing for FIPS approved and NIST recommended cryptographic algorithms and components of algorithms, is a prerequisite for CMVP.

Notes

External links

NIST Cryptographic Module Validation Program
Cryptography standards {{crypto-stub