[Cryptography] Durable HSM with fingerprint reader?

[Ron Garret]

On May 19, 2018, at 11:07 AM, Ray Dillinger <bear at sonic.net> wrote:

> I'm looking for long-lasting, tamper-resistant secure hardware that does
> a cryptographically simple job.  It stores a bunch of unique keys, gets
> to sit on people's desktops, and in principle never needs to be moved
> (except that someone might want to store it to keep it safe - it is
> potentially a high-value target for thieves or saboteurs).
> 
> It needs to have a fingerprint reader - a pretty good one in terms of
> being hard to spoof. Other than that a red LED and a green LED are the
> only UI necessary.
> 
> It needs to get time from a reasonably reliable external source such as
> a GPS signal and/or the atomic clock broadcast. Correctness of time will
> also be enforced by limited time windows during which particular keys
> are authorized for answering challenges.

The hardware you’ve described is an iPhone with touchID.  However...

> It's a device for the user to periodically check-in and assert that "I
> am alive and free, today."

Whoa, nellie.  How is this device going to distinguish “alive and well” from (how shall I put this delicately?) out of commission and digitally truncated?

rg

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