Secure hardware cryptocurrency wallet within common criteria framework

Abstract

Bitcoin paper, published under a pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, opened a new era; cryptocurrencies, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies that are aiming distributed trust model. Even if there has been an ongoing extensive discussion both on the origin and the future about these developing technologies, number of products, studies and projects are increasing day by day. Among these the most crucial one is crypto wallets since the distributed trust and privacy preserving solutions are all relies on the underlying cryptographic primitives and the corresponding cryptographic keys. Almost all the cryptocurrencies require their users individually manage their own cryptographic keys or recommend use of cryptocurrency wallets. A cryptocurrency wallet or shortly, crypto wallet, has to generate and store one or more public-private keys and corresponding addresses. These keys authenticate corresponding transactions, hence any adversary who gains access to a wallet may seize all the assets secured with them. Therefore, cryptocurrency wallet solutions and products should be carefully analyzed and better to be certified if possible from the very beginning.
\nIn this thesis, we mainly focus on to what extend and how a cryptocurrency wallet’s security analysis should be pursued. In order to formally portray the analysis framework, we propose to follow the Common Criteria (CC) Evaluation framework. CC evaluation framework is a formal evaluation methodology. For this purpose, assumptions, risks, threatsandsecurityvulnerabilitiesofthewalletswillbedefined. Also,objectivesshowing howthesethreatswillbecounteredinsidethewalletandwhatkindofmeasuresshouldbe taken by the environment and users will be detailed. In order to understand the security requirements, blockchain technology and Bitcoin which is the leading cryptocurrency will be explained and cryptocurrency wallets will be classified. In addition, we are going to propose a secure hardware wallet design in terms of physical and logical requirements. Then, we will compare the proposed wallet with other hardware wallets on the market. WebelievethatthisthesismaybebasicresourceforcreatingstandardizedCCdocuments such as Protection Profile(PP), Security Target(ST) etc. Furthermore, this study would be a brief source for cryptocurrency wallets’ design, test and analysis phases.