Zirah post-quantum hardware signer uses avalanche noise RNG
Original title: Zirah: A Post-Quantum True Random Number Generator Hardware Signer With an Avalanche Noise
Device draws entropy from diode avalanche breakdown to sign ML-DSA-65 files on STM32F401 with masking.
Zirah is a hardware signer built around an STM32F401 microcontroller. It draws random bits from a reverse-biased 2N3904 junction in avalanche breakdown, amplified by an LM358 and screened by SP 800-90B health tests. The device computes ML-DSA-65 with two-share arithmetic masking of the secret-key multiplications and adds ECDSA P-256 from an ATECC608 secure element over the same digest. After matching an eight-digit digest prefix on its OLED with the PC and pressing a button, it returns signed copies for PDF, Office Open XML, ZIP, PNG and JPEG files and detached records for every other format.
Unconfirmed: Leakage results come from an instruction-level emulator on an earlier board; nothing is certified.
- Draws every random bit from reverse-biased 2N3904 junction
- NIST SP 800-90B assessed 6.898 bits of min-entropy per byte
- Median masked signature time of 157 ms at 168 MHz
- Matches pq-crystals reference in 1,976 checks
- Key stored in ordinary flash behind readout protection
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgZirah is a hardware signer built around an STM32F407 microcontroller, and its purpose is to find out, on inexpensive hardware, where a post-quantum signing key is exposed and what actually protects it.
By Muhammad Shaheer Bin Junaid · arxiv.org
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