Nitrokey Start Supports Elliptic Curves (ECC)

RSA-2048 Becomes Increasingly Insecure

For security reasons, the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik or BSI) no longer recommends RSA keys with a length of 2048 bit be used after 2022. This means that longer keys will need to come into use in the foreseeable future. Assuming a period of use of five years, safer keys should already be being generated. However, longer RSA keys with 3072 bit or 4096 bit are significantly slower. For this reason Nitrokey Start (resp. the underlying firmware Gnuk) has been supporting encryption by means of elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) for some time. This method is considered to be just as secure for smaller key systems as longer RSA keys and is also considerably faster.

Basics of Elliptic-Curve Cryptography

In contrast to RSA, there are many different forms (so-called curves) of elliptic-curve cryptography. Notably, the NSA was involved in the development of the NIST curves. Even if there is no evidence of back doors in the curves, using a certain curve can pose a question of trust. Fortunately the Nitrokey Start supports multiple curves, namely NIST, SECG and Curve25519. In what follows we will use Curve25519 and Ed25519 that is based upon this, both of which have a good reputation and are considered to be secure. This article provides a good entry point for gaining a general understanding of elliptic-curve cryptography.

System Requirements

In order to create keys based on elliptic curves on the Nitrokey Start, firmware 1.2 and GnuPG version 2.1.16 or higher must be installed.

You can read Nitrokey Start’s firmware version via ‘gpg2 —card-status’:

> gpg --card-status
Reader ...........: 20A0:4211:FSIJ-1.2.4-67083322:0
...

The digit after ‘FSIJ’ indicates the state of the software — in this case it is 1.2.4. Elliptic-curve cryptography can be used with the Nitrokey Start from version 1.2.x onwards. Should older firmware happen to be installed, you can update it with the help of these instructions.

You can learn about the installed version of GnuPG via ‘gpg2 --version’. At least version 2.1.16 is required. The newest GnuPG version for Windows can be found here and the newest version for MacOS can be found here. A suitable version of GnuPG is included in the GNU/Linux distributions Debian (from Stretch onwards), Arch Linux, Fedora (from Release 26 onwards) and openSUSE Tumbleweed. Unfortunately only GnuPG 2.1.15 is currently included in the latest release of Ubuntu (17.10) and use is therefore currently not readily possible. At the end of this articles are instructions how to manually update GnuPG on Ubuntu.

Important: GnuPG 2.0 is still being used, but support for it will run out around the end of 2017. All communication partners must use GnuPG 2.1 or newer for email encryption by means of ECC, otherwise incompatibility issues might arise. Therefore you should only use ECC if you are sure you will be able to circumvent this problem.

Key Generation on the Nitrokey Start

Once these requirements are fulfilled, you can get started. (Warning: existing keys will be overwritten in the process!) You now have two options. The first option is to create the key directly on the Nitrokey Start. The benefit here is that the key will never be outside the device and as such can never be read out. The second option is to import a previously locally generated key. The advantage in this case is that you can securely store a backup of the key, which can then be restored in case the Nitrokey is lost. Only the first option is described below. In order to create a key with backup, you can access the following instructions and use this general information to transfer the key to the Nitrokey.

Within GnuPG there is already a ‘generate’ command, which can be used to easily create keys on the device. (Update 20.11.2017: With GnuPG 2.2.2 and higher, during "generate" command you can enter the keysize "25519" to select Curve25519. In this case you can skip the following lines.) However it is not as yet possible to select the type of key directly, so the key must first be prepared. We use the following commands for this:

> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 1 22 ed25519" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 2 18 cv25519" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 3 22 ed25519" /bye

Alternatively, other curves could be selected, as described in the next section.

Now we enter ‘gpg2 --card-edit’ and see that ed25519 or cv25519 is under ‘key attributes’ instead of rsa2048.

> gpg2 --card-edit
Reader ...........: 20A0:4211:FSIJ-1.2.4-67083322:0
Application ID ...: D276000124010200FFFE670833220000
Version ..........: 2.0
Manufacturer .....: unmanaged S/N range
Serial number ....: 67083322
Name of cardholder: [not set]
Language prefs ...: [not set]
Sex ..............: unspecified
URL of public key : [not set]
Login data .......: [not set]
Signature PIN ....: forced
Key attributes ...: ed25519 cv25519 ed25519
Max. PIN lengths .: 127 127 127
PIN retry counter : 3 3 3
Signature counter : 0
Signature key ....: [none]
Encryption key....: [none]
Authentication key: [none]
General key info..: [none]

Then we create the key.

gpg/card> admin
Admin commands are allowed

gpg/card> generate
Make off-card backup of encryption key? (Y/n) n
Please note that the factory settings of the PINs are
PIN = '123456' Admin PIN = '12345678'
You should change them using the command --change-pin
Please specify how long the key should be valid.
0 = key does not expire
<n> = key expires in n days
<n>w = key expires in n weeks
<n>m = key expires in n months
<n>y = key expires in n years
Key is valid for? (0)
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct? (y/N) y
GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.
Real name: Jane Doe
Email address: [email protected]
Comment:
You selected this USER-ID:
"Jane Doe <[email protected]>"
Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O
gpg: key 7F8C68E1B084E169 marked as ultimately trusted
gpg: revocation certificate stored as '/home/jane/.gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d/F8C00BC1636A7D7604A31A877F8C68E1B084E169.rev'
public and secret key created and signed.

The Nitrokey Start now incorporates elliptic-curve cryptography instead of RSA keys and can be used as usual.

Available Curves

In the above procedure we chose the curve ed25519 and cv25519 by Daniel Bernstein. Alternatively, NIST or SECG curves can be used. The configuration is carried out as follows:

Option NIST curves:

> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 1 19 nistp256" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 2 18 nistp256" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 3 19 nistp256" /bye

Option SECG curves: Warning: This curve is not recommended for email encryption but for Bitcoin-related use cases only!

> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 1 19 secp256k1" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 2 18 secp256k1" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 3 19 secp256k1" /bye

Option Curve25519:

> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 1 22 ed25519" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 2 18 cv25519" /bye
> gpg-connect-agent "SCD SETATTR KEY-ATTR --force 3 22 ed25519" /bye

Update of GnuPG on Ubuntu

The following steps are needed only if you are running a Ubuntu version older than 18.04! You can install GnuPG 2.1.18 on such system with the commands below. This involves newer Debian packages, which is the easiest option. This approach has been tested successfully on Ubuntu 17.10. However, the occurence of problems during usage can‘t be excluded.

$ mkdir gnupg_tmp
$ cd gnupg_tmp
$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gnupg2/gnupg_2.1.18-8~deb9u1_amd64.deb
$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gnupg2/dirmngr_2.1.18-8~deb9u1_amd64.deb
$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gnupg2/gnupg-agent_2.1.18-8~deb9u1_amd64.deb
$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gnupg2/scdaemon_2.1.18-8~deb9u1_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i *
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf gnupg_tmp

In case you want to undo the installation, you have to execute the following commands:

$ sudo dpkg --remove --force-depends gnupg dirmngr gnupg-agent scdaemon
(removes manually installed packages)
$ sudo apt-get install gnupg dirmngr gnupg-agent scdaemon
(installs the appropriate packages from regular package repositories)

23.10.2019

Comments

Is there any plan to have this support on any other product any time soon (Nitrokey Storage in my case) ? Or did I miss it somehow ?

Yes, we want to add ECC support to NK Pro and NK Storage too sometime next year.

Hi,

by adding support to the Pro line, do you mean by way of buying a new device? I understand that the Storage firmware is upgradeable, but not the Pro firmware (barring flashing a new one via a serial connection).

regards, Antoine 

The next major version of Nitrokey Pro and Storage which supports ECC would require a new hardware. Firmware updates won't bring ECC support, other than for the Nitrokey Start.

Looking at the white paper for the OpenPGP 3.x cards I only see some references to curves based on Brainpool. As some have pointed out on the GnuPG mailing list Brainpool has a lot in common with the now untrusted NIST curves. Really hope the OpenPGP 3.x cards will support curve 25519 like the Gnuk does. I am also wondering when an actual ver. 3 smartcard will be made/sold to the public?

If NitroKey can get a device working with 25519 and storage Ill be buying a new device that day! Been using the Nitrokey Pro for about a year and love it!

Hello,

if Nitrokey Start supports Ecliptic curves, you should update it's page (https://shop.nitrokey.com/shop/product/nitrokey-start-6), as Id doesn't mention that.

 

Can you please confirm that Nitrokey Start supports EC.

Thank you for the reminder. We will update it later today. I confirm that NK Start supports ECC.

Hello,

how is the support coming along?

What do you mean?

I always used to read article in news papers but now as I am a user of net therefore from now I am using net for articles or reviews, thanks to web.
At this time I am ready to do my breakfast, after having my breakfast coming again to read other news.
Hi there would you mind letting me know which webhost you're utilizing? I've loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you suggest a good hosting provider at a honest price? Thank you, I appreciate it!
Hey, sure we can, we use: https://www.dotplex.com/

Why would anyone even use RSA2048 by default, when RSA4096 has been out for long and is supported by all major distributions? Is the smart card on Nitrokey not compatible with 4k?

RSA-4096 with the Nitrokey Pro is reasonable fast. But with Nitrokey Start each operation takes about 8 seconds. Here ECC is a very good alternative.

Did I understand you right? As a Nitrokey Storage user, I won't get ECC as a firmware update but have to buy a new a new one?

Yes. This is because the cryptography in Nitrokey Storage is real hardware.

How about having a "loyal customer upgrade plan". Could upgrade the OpenPGP v2.1 card to a OpenGPG 3.x version.  Customers send in their old devices and pay for the upgrade?

Unfortunately this wouldn't work. Our prices are too low and we don't have margin for this. In addition, the handling of returned devices and associated payments would be extra effort which needs to be paid. It is the same as buying a new phone: You don't get points for being a loyal whatever-brand customer.

Greetings! Very helpful advice within this article! It's the little changes that produce the most important changes. Many thanks for sharing!

Any ETA for new Nitrokey Pro (With ECC support)?
Does Nitrokey Storage already support ECC?

Is it possible to boot OS with Nitrokey Storage? (This would be killer feature for me, so I don't have to carry extra memory stick with me)

Nitrokey Pro and Storage with ECC support should come in the next few weeks, maybe March.

Yes, you can boot operating systems from the Nitrokey Storage.

Ack!  I just ordered a Pro last week, and now a new version supporting ECC will be available in just a few weeks?!  This info should really be made [more] available on the web page - outside of the headline "Nitrokey Start Supports Elliptic Curves (ECC)"

I will be happy enough with the Pro, I imagine, but really would have preferred to have both RSA4096 and ECC.

 

RSA is becoming increasingly insecure, so if you want the storage, it will be for storing files not rsa. ;)

The storage does not interest me; I can secure commercial flash storage by other means. I only use NK for gpg and nothing else.

Excellent pieces. Keep writing such kind of information on your site. Im really impressed by your blog. Hi there, You've done an incredible job. I'll certainly digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I'm confident they'll be benefited from this site.

Just noticed, that social links in footer of the page aren't working.

They are working fine for me. But you really need to click them. Just hovering the mouse over it is not sufficient. Do you use an aggressive add-on like NoScript perhaps?

seriously, 3074 bit? is this a typo???

Correct is 3072 bit. Thank you for the notice.

Is there an estimate or at least vague idea when the new Nitrokey Pro with ECC will be available? I read "the next few weeks, maybe March." but no update since. I looking to buy a smartcard device and would be alright with waiting a bit.

We don't have an exact date yet but the device is working, we just need to get logistics sorted out. Latest would be June.

Thank you for your reply! Besides ECC, are there further improvements or changes?

No.

Does the Nitrokey Start support 3 RSA keys PLUS 3 ECC keys or 3 keys total which can be either RSA or ECC?

What about the Nitrokey Pro and Storage when they come out?

Any news when new version of NitrokeyPro will be available?

We are just launching a new NK Storage v2 this week. NK Pro v2 will be next, during this summer.

The details of the Nitrokey Storage says, that ECC is supported

"Secure key storage for encryption of emails, hard disks and files. Compatible with GnuPG/OpenPGP, S/MIME, X.509, SSH, TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt and many more. RSA-2048, RSA4096, and ECC-256 are supported."

however, the comparison sheet of the NitroKey devices says the opposite.

 

Do you need to update the table?

Thank you for the pointer. The data sheet has been updated just recently. We are going to launch an announcement soon.

Hey there,

after reading different comments and finding different information in different fact sheets I feel confused.

I want to switch away from my yubikey to a smartcard which is developed with a focus on OSS. Nitrokey seems to do the trick. What I need is Curve25519 for my GPG Key and TOTP slots.

I could not find a nitrokey product which has both. Am I right or did I miss something?

Cheers
Jakob

You are right. Curve25519 ist supported by Nitrokey Start. TOTP ist supported by Nitrokey Pro and Nitrokey Storage.

can this guide be used on Nitrokey Storage 2? If so, I would buy one.

"Update 20.11.2017: With GnuPG 2.2.2 and higher, during "generate" command you can enter the keysize "25519" to select Curve25519. In this case you can skip the following lines.) However it is not as yet possible to select the type of key directly, so the key must first be prepared."

Nitrokey Storage 2 (as well as Pro 2) doesn't support Curve25519 but Brainpool and NIST instead.

Oh, I see, in that case, is there a significant difference in level of security between, brainpool and rsa2048/rsa4096

I am just wondering how many times more secure brainpool is than RSA.

And if there will be a storage version that will support curve25519 in the future.

RSA 2048 is deprecated and shouldn't be used for keys which are assumed to be used for several years. Instead RSA-3072 and ECC-256 are recommended and secure alternatives. Of course, longer key length are even more secure. AFAIK, The particular curve (Brainpool, NIST, Curve25519) shouldn't make much of a difference in terms of security.

If that's the case, should I be upgrading my nitrokey-storages? Is that an option?

You can't upgrade Nitrokey Storage but you can use RSA-4096 with Nitrokey Storage 1 already.

Any possibility to see a Nitrokey Pro equipped w/ RSA 4096 AND Curve25519 support? Maybe in the course of 2019? For many people I know (including myself) this is really the feature combination they are waiting for. Thanks!
Sooner or later, that will come. Please subscribe our newsletter to get informed right away.

Pages

Add new comment

Fill in the blank.