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What impl. of a cryptographically secure RNG is used in NEO?
https://forum.yubico.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1874
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Author:  rfkrocktk [ Mon May 11, 2015 8:44 pm ]
Post subject:  What impl. of a cryptographically secure RNG is used in NEO?

Quoting from the YubiKey manual:

Quote:
Random Number generator
The standard YubiKey has a built-in random number generator that involves a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) that is fed from analog output of the touch sensor as well as asynchronous data from USB traffic. Although not directly critical to the security of the YubiKey or the OTP generation algorithm, the random number generation yields reasonably high quality numbers given these unrelated sources.
The YubiKey NEO features a high-quality, cryptographically secure random number generator.


What "high-quality, cryptographically secure random number generator" implementation is used in the YubiKey NEO? Has this RNG code been audited by a third-party? Random number generation is, in fact, a really critical part of cryptography, and since I'm using my NEOs in PIV and PGP modes, secure generation of RSA public/private keypairs is largely dependent on the RNG code used by the NEO.

Can Yubico comment on these concerns? Has there been an audit?

Author:  brendanhoar [ Mon May 11, 2015 10:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What impl. of a cryptographically secure RNG is used in

Just an aside (not an employee): the NEO is based on the A700x series chipset from NXP (similar chip to what's used in current iPhone and Samsung android models for the secure chipset). The chipset itself provides a "Low-power True Random Number Generator (TRNG) in hardware, AIS-31 compliant", according to the product page here: http://www.nxp.com/products/identificat ... AMILY.html

NXP is a rather large provider of chipsets for smartcards, etc.

Brendan

Author:  rfkrocktk [ Mon May 11, 2015 11:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What impl. of a cryptographically secure RNG is used in

brendanhoar wrote:
Just an aside (not an employee): the NEO is based on the A700x series chipset from NXP (similar chip to what's used in current iPhone and Samsung android models for the secure chipset). The chipset itself provides a "Low-power True Random Number Generator (TRNG) in hardware, AIS-31 compliant", according to the product page here: http://www.nxp.com/products/identificat ... AMILY.html

NXP is a rather large provider of chipsets for smartcards, etc.

Brendan


Where do you know the chipset from? Is the NEO-n the same chipset as the regular NEO?

Author:  Tom2 [ Tue May 12, 2015 9:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What impl. of a cryptographically secure RNG is used in

Yes, same chip. brendanhoar is correct.

Author:  rfkrocktk [ Tue May 12, 2015 10:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What impl. of a cryptographically secure RNG is used in

Is there any documentation on the implementation of the A700x CSRNG?

Author:  rfkrocktk [ Wed May 20, 2015 3:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What impl. of a cryptographically secure RNG is used in

Bump. Is there any documentation on how the RNG is implemented?

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