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Low 33 Bitcoin

securechip: make random async

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Marko Bencun

40/100 · Thin
securechip: make random async
✓ Descriptive subject✓ Names security-relevant behavior explicitly! No meaningful explanatory body
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit rewrites how the BitBox02 hardware wallet fetches random numbers from its secure chip. Previously, the secure chip's random generator was called in a blocking (synchronous) way. The change makes it asynchronous, so the firmware can do other work while waiting. It also removes an older, simpler random interface and now mixes the secure-chip randomness with the microcontroller's own randomness before using it for sensitive key material. The commit itself is a defensive refactor; it does not appear to fix a known exploit, but it removes a synchronous call that could stall the device and strengthens how random values are combined when creating password-stretching secrets.

Recommended action

Treat as a hardening/refactoring change rather than an emergency security patch. Review the async state machine for race conditions or use-after-free around the new static `BUF` in `crypt_random`, verify that all callers correctly `.await` the RNG and handle errors, and confirm that the added MCU/factory entropy mixing does not introduce bias or reduce entropy. Run firmware tests covering seed creation, password setup, and device reset.

Security signals we found

01

Removal of synchronous secure-chip RNG C bindings (`optiga_random`, `optiga_ifs_random_32_bytes`)

02

Introduction of async `optiga_crypt_random` with a static buffer and explicit zeroization on error

03

Random material used for key generation now mixes MCU RNG, secure-chip RNG, and factory randomness via SHA-256

04

Password-stretching secret generation (`init_new_password`, `reset_keys`) now requires an explicit HAL RNG source

05

No vendor statement of security relevance or CVE in commit message or diff

Risk score

Why this scored 33/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 8/30
Exploitability 5/25
Stealth signal 4/15
Affected reach 6/15
Confidence 7/10
Evidence quality 3/5
Human-validated context

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