Post
Topic
Board Mycelium
Re: Mycelium Entropy update
by
cetus
on 21/04/2015, 12:34:00 UTC
I'm waiting for mine too.. Is there a way to modify the firmware so that I can use Entropy as HW random number generator?

Yes, but there is a nuance.

The main hardware entropy source (SRAM) works only once when you power it up.  If you want to generate a continuous stream, you have to use the built-in TRNG (probably safe, as it's not from Intel) and ADC measurements of a floating input.  There is a new appendix in the user manual about it: https://mycelium.com/assets/entropy/me.html#_appendix_b_how_it_works .

You can power SRAM off in hibernate mode, but it takes about 30 seconds for each sampling of about 6 kbits of entropy.  SRAM discharge is slower in hibernate mode than when the device is unplugged.

Personally, I doubt there is any chance at all that Atmel's built-in hardware RNG is compromised.  And you can still use the one-off salt from SRAM to thwart any hardware attacks on the built-in TRNG module.