Systems and methods for protecting symmetric encryption keys

A system, comprising:

• a processor having access to at least one real key;
• and
• memory coupled to the processor, the memory to store at least one transformed key, the processor is configured to execute a key transform instruction to generate at least one transformed key based on the at least one real key.

A processor, comprising:

• a processing unit to retrieve at least one real key from a secure area and to generate at least one round key based on the at least one real key;
• and
• cache coupled to the processing unit, the processing unit is configured to execute a key transform instruction to generate at least one transformed key based on the at least one round key, wherein the cache to store the at least one round key and the at least one transformed key.