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Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

tillitis.se

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Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#21

Post by JoachimS »

ldng wrote: post #17
Havoc wrote: post #4

Am I right in thinking that this is basically like a yubikey except with openness as key differentiator? Or is it’s function something else ?

It is an FPGA, fully open both at software and hardware level. So quite a bit more futurproof, inspectable and upgradable than a yubikey.

(For full disclosure I am the primary FPGA designer of TillitisKey.)

It also perform a measurement of the application being loaded. And the measurement together with the Unique Device Secret (UDS) will generate the primary secret applications can use to derive keys etc it needs. This means that you can verify the application integrity.

This is very close to, inspired by DICE: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/dice-device...

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#23

Post by byyll »

LibertyBeta wrote: post #15
kreetx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly sure, but the OSFC conference page has some extra info on what it can do: https://www.osfc.io/2022/talks/tillitis-key-a-usb-security-k... Maybe it will be ~YubiKey plus extras?

So Solokey V2. Not that I'm complaining by the way. Any open competition to yubikey is a win in my book.

I really dislike how "Yubikey" is being used in many places as a name for U2F and FIDO2.

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#24

Post by tinco »

JoachimS wrote: post #21
ldng wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an FPGA, fully open both at software and hardware level. So quite a bit more futurproof, inspectable and upgradable than a yubikey.

(For full disclosure I am the primary FPGA designer of TillitisKey.) It also perform a measurement of the application being loaded. And the measurement together with the Unique Device Secret (UDS) will generate the primary secret applications can use to derive keys etc it needs. This means that you can verify the application integrity. This is very close to, inspired by DICE: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/…

Did you design the board? It looks sick, such high density of components on the top layer.

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#25

Post by dabeeeenster »

ldng wrote: post #17
Havoc wrote: post #4

Am I right in thinking that this is basically like a yubikey except with openness as key differentiator? Or is it’s function something else ?

It is an FPGA, fully open both at software and hardware level. So quite a bit more futurproof, inspectable and upgradable than a yubikey.

I was under the impression that not being upgradeable was a security feature of Yubikeys?

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#26

Post by jeroenhd »

I'm not sure what problem this solves. I see per-application keys based on the hash of the application, but wouldn't this prevent updates of those applications without key loss? It's clear to me that this device can be used for _some_ kind of cryptographic operation/verification mechanism, but I'm at a loss for what problem this is actually designed to solve.

What's the practical application of this key?

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#27

Post by lucideer »

dabeeeenster wrote: post #25
ldng wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an FPGA, fully open both at software and hardware level. So quite a bit more futurproof, inspectable and upgradable than a yubikey.

I was under the impression that not being upgradeable was a security feature of Yubikeys?

It is. And therein lies the innovation here: upgradable with verification.

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#28

Post by _def »

pxeger1 wrote: post #19

It strikes me that open source hardware should be more common. It's surely much easier to monetise than open source software: you just sell the hardware, because noone wants to build one themselves. Why isn't it?

It's risky. You still need the software, otherwise only some devs and tinkerers will buy it - and even for them there better be tool chains etc

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#29

Post by michaelt »

Havoc wrote: post #4

Am I right in thinking that this is basically like a yubikey except with openness as key differentiator? Or is it’s function something else ?

According to [1]

> It offers both security and flexibility by being end-user programmable while also preventing applications loaded onto the device from knowing each other’s secrets. During use firmware on Tillitis Key derives a unique key for each application it runs by measuring it before execution. This is done by combining an application’s hash value with a unique per device secret. Applications are loaded onto the device from the host computer during use, and are not stored persistently on the device.

So the idea here is:

* General purpose, reprogrammable security coprocessor

* If you save secrets with application A, then install evil application B, it can't access the secrets from A.

* And if you revert back to A, those saved secrets will still be there.

* Therefore, it's more practical to run two different applications - and safer to experiment with your own applications, because you won't lose all your website logins.

[1] https://www.tillitis.se/

Re: Tillitis Key – Mullvad spin-off inspired by measured boot and DICE

#30

Post by JoachimS »

tinco wrote: post #24
JoachimS wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(For full disclosure I am the primary FPGA designer of TillitisKey.) It also perform a measurement of the application being loaded. And the measurement together with the Unique Device Secret (UDS) will generate the primary secret applications can use to derive keys etc it needs. This means that you can verify the application integrity. This is very close to, inspired by DICE: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/…

Did you design the board? It looks sick, such high density of components on the top layer.

No, the board design is done by the wizard Matt Mets at https://blinkinlabs.com/
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