PhyRand is a hardware-rooted cryptographic appliance designed to bridge the gap between physical phenomena and digital security. It utilizes Zener diode reverse-bias breakdown noise to generate non-deterministic AES-128-CBC keys.
Software-based random number generators (PRNGs) are inherently deterministic. PhyRand mitigates this risk by employing an Entropy Pipeline sourced from physical noise:
- Source: Zener diode reverse-bias breakdown noise (tunneling regime at 3V).
- Processing: Real-time Von Neumann debiasing performed on-chip via STM32.
- Validation: Achieves an entropy density of 7.9997 bits/byte (ent suite; NIST SP 800-22 pending on corrected firmware output).
PhyRand operates as a decentralized Key Authority. The system architecture provides local client-side encryption with hardware entropy, where plaintext data remains local to the client environment.
- Hardware Layer: Zener Core, Pre-Amplifier, and Main Amplifier stages.
- Embedded Layer: STM32 ADC sampling and high-speed USB Serial data streaming.
- Backend Layer: FastAPI Key Authority mapping the hardware entropy stream to a RESTful service.
- Client Layer: Browser-based AES-128-CBC (Fernet) encryption suite.
- /api: FastAPI Key Authority server implementation.
- /firmware: STM32 source code and pre-compiled binaries.
- /scripts: Python utilities for entropy analysis and automated vault management.
- /data: Raw entropy captures and statistical validation records.
- /vault: Secure local storage for encrypted assets and session metadata.
Connect the STM32 hardware and ensure the device is mapped to /dev/hwrng.
# Install required dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt
# Execute the FastAPI server
python3 api/qrng_api.pyUtilize the CLI utility for local file security:
python3 scripts/quantum_vault.py <filename>Author: Kavin-Re Electronics Engineering | Embedded Systems | Applied Cryptography