MaticControl Crypto Module for Raspberry Pi

Keep your software safe with this MaticControl crypto module. Most microcontrollers are not designed to protect against snoopers, but a crypto-authentication chip can be used to lock away private keys securely. Once the private key is saved inside the chip, it can’t be read out, all you can do is send it challenge-response queries. That means that even if someone gets hold of your hardware and can read back the firmware, they won’t be able to extract it!

The ATECC608 is the latest crypto-auth chip from Microchip, and to make working with it as easy as possible, we’ve put it on a Pi-friendly PCB. This allows you to use it with Raspberry Pi or other similarly equipped boards without needing to solder.

ATECC608 uses I2C to send/receive commands. It will work with 3.3V or 5V power/logic, so it’s ready to get to work with a range of development boards. Once you ‘lock’ the chip with your details, you can use it for ECDH and AES-128 encrypt/decrypt/signing. There’s also hardware support for random number generation, and SHA-256/HMAC hash functions to greatly speed up a slower micro’s cryptography commands.

To our surprise, this chip does not have a public datasheet, but it is compatible with the ATECC508 earlier version which does, so please refer to that complete datasheet as well as the ATECC608 summary sheet. The good news is that, despite not having complete documentation, there is some software support. For Python and C/C++ check out Microchips Cryptoauthlib.

Please note the I2C address is fixed at 0x60 and according to Microchip, you should use this at higher I2C speeds like 400KHz if other devices are on the I2C bus, to avoid some I2C bus contention (much like the datasheet, this is not documented anywhere yet). For more detailed information please download the PDF.

This module will fit inside a MaticBox Raspberry Pi 4 case too!

Note: This MaticControl module covers the pins for the 5V / 3,3V power supply, I2C, GPIO14 (RXD) and GPIO14 (TXD). If you want to use them, we offer alternative modules that provide access to these pins via separate connectors on the top of the board.

Raspberry Pi not included

Features

• ATECC608 crypto-auth board for Raspberry Pi
• Use for ECDH and AES-128 encrypt/decrypt/signing
• Hardware support for random number generation and SHA-256/HMAC hash functions
• Fits on your Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins
• No soldering required

Resources

• Information sheet
• GitHub Python C/C++ repo
• Datasheet (different chip but compatible)

Package Contents

• 1x HAT01C MaticControl crypto module

Raspberry Pi not included