External entropy supply for IoT devices employing a RISC-V Trusted Execution Environment

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Paju, Arttu, Nurmi, Juha, Aldaya, Alejandro Cabrera, Tuveri, Nicola, Savimäki, Juha, Kivikangas, Marko, McGillion, Brian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Paju, Arttu
Nurmi, Juha
Aldaya, Alejandro Cabrera
Tuveri, Nicola
Savimäki, Juha
Kivikangas, Marko
McGillion, Brian
author_facet Paju, Arttu
Nurmi, Juha
Aldaya, Alejandro Cabrera
Tuveri, Nicola
Savimäki, Juha
Kivikangas, Marko
McGillion, Brian
contents Entropy--a measure of randomness--is compulsory for the generation of secure cryptographic keys; however, Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are small or constrained often struggle to collect suf ficient entropy. In this article, we solve the entropy provisioning problem for a fleet of IoT devices that can generate a limited amount of entropy. We employ a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) based on RISC-V to create an external entropy service for a fleet of IoT devices. A small measure of true entropy or pre-installed keys can establish initial secure communication. Once connected, devices can request cryptographically strong entropy from a TEE-backed server. RISC-V offers True Random Number Generators (TRNGs) and a TEE for devices to attest that they are receiving reliable entropy. In addition, this solution can be expanded by adding IoT devices with sensors that produce high-quality entropy as additional entropy sources for the RISC-V entropy provider. Our open-source implementation shows that building trusted entropy infrastructure for IoT is both feasible and effective on open RISC-V platforms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_09311
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle External entropy supply for IoT devices employing a RISC-V Trusted Execution Environment
Paju, Arttu
Nurmi, Juha
Aldaya, Alejandro Cabrera
Tuveri, Nicola
Savimäki, Juha
Kivikangas, Marko
McGillion, Brian
Cryptography and Security
Entropy--a measure of randomness--is compulsory for the generation of secure cryptographic keys; however, Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are small or constrained often struggle to collect suf ficient entropy. In this article, we solve the entropy provisioning problem for a fleet of IoT devices that can generate a limited amount of entropy. We employ a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) based on RISC-V to create an external entropy service for a fleet of IoT devices. A small measure of true entropy or pre-installed keys can establish initial secure communication. Once connected, devices can request cryptographically strong entropy from a TEE-backed server. RISC-V offers True Random Number Generators (TRNGs) and a TEE for devices to attest that they are receiving reliable entropy. In addition, this solution can be expanded by adding IoT devices with sensors that produce high-quality entropy as additional entropy sources for the RISC-V entropy provider. Our open-source implementation shows that building trusted entropy infrastructure for IoT is both feasible and effective on open RISC-V platforms.
title External entropy supply for IoT devices employing a RISC-V Trusted Execution Environment
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09311