Methods and apparatus for pointer security

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to interface circuitry to receive a pointer comprising a plurality of address bits, and pointer processing circuitry. The pointer processing circuitry is configured to extract and encrypt plurality of address bits from the pointer, to produce a plurality of encrypted address bits. The pointer processing circuitry determines, based at least in part on the plurality of address bits, a pointer authentication value. It then combines the pointer authentication value with the plurality of encrypted address bits, to produce a signed encrypted pointer.