US Patent 9008316 Role-based distributed key management

Implementations for providing role-based distributed key management (DKM) replication are described. A server node receives a request from a requester node to perform a DKM create or update function. The server node determines the role of the requester node based on a public key of the requester node. The server node determines whether the role of the requester node indicates that the requester node is authorized to request the DKM create or update function. If the requester node's role is authorized to request the DKM create or update function, then the server node performs the requested function. The DKM create or update function may involve a replication function. Public key and trust chains may be derived from physical cryptographic processors, such as TPMs.