3 ms·

any guides for using a non-proprietary piece of hardware?

justinjlynn 9y ago
many, however, effectively all of the smartcard hardware implementations are proprietary. The most open one I can think of is the OpenPGP card which is PC/SC standard compatible. It's sold by Free Software Foundation Europe and is colloquially known as the "foundation" card. However, while the applet source that runs on the Java card is available, I don't know about the firmware or runtime libreness. It's be really great to have an auditable open source processor/soc design with PC/SC compatible interface and secure enclave implemented in an ISO standard smartcard form factor. Alas, to my knowledge nothing like that exists. Yubikey designs used to be a lot more open than they are currently (you used to be able to run your own applets, IIRC - with some security compromises, of course). That said, I would still personally use them for non-critical things - it's a really handy form factor.
- icebraining 9y ago
  It's sold by Free Software Foundation Europe Not anymore! https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171116-01.en.html https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171116-01.en.html I was surprised, since I still received it, seems like I was one of the last. I feel like a five-digit /. user :)
sowbug 9y ago
Same instructions, just use different hardware running Gnuk (http://www.fsij.org/doc-gnuk/ http://www.fsij.org/doc-gnuk/). Discussion of some hardware options here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16080366 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16080366 Almost anything that can run NeuG can also run Gnuk. You're not going to get tamper-resistant hardware -- unfortunately it's not possible today to buy truly open hardware with a tamper-resistant design -- but you'll get something that most people consider open. Someone is going to reply to this and note sagely that all commercial hardware is proprietary. I don't interpret craftyguy's question as a rhetorical statement that we're all doomed.

many, however, effectively all of the smartcard hardware implementations are proprietary. The most open one I can think of is the OpenPGP card which is PC/SC standard compatible. It's sold by Free Software Foundation Europe and is colloquially known as the "foundation" card. However, while the applet source that runs on the Java card is available, I don't know about the firmware or runtime libreness. It's be really great to have an auditable open source processor/soc design with PC/SC compatible interface and secure enclave implemented in an ISO standard smartcard form factor. Alas, to my knowledge nothing like that exists. Yubikey designs used to be a lot more open than they are currently (you used to be able to run your own applets, IIRC - with some security compromises, of course). That said, I would still personally use them for non-critical things - it's a really handy form factor.

icebraining 9y ago
It's sold by Free Software Foundation Europe Not anymore! https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171116-01.en.html https://fsfe.org/news/2017/news-20171116-01.en.html I was surprised, since I still received it, seems like I was one of the last. I feel like a five-digit /. user :)

sowbug 9y ago

Same instructions, just use different hardware running Gnuk (http://www.fsij.org/doc-gnuk/ http://www.fsij.org/doc-gnuk/). Discussion of some hardware options here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16080366 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16080366 Almost anything that can run NeuG can also run Gnuk. You're not going to get tamper-resistant hardware -- unfortunately it's not possible today to buy truly open hardware with a tamper-resistant design -- but you'll get something that most people consider open. Someone is going to reply to this and note sagely that all commercial hardware is proprietary. I don't interpret craftyguy's question as a rhetorical statement that we're all doomed.