After years of training journalists and NGOs communication and operational security, after years of conducting research into the tools and protocols used, it took some more years developing a reasonable answer to most of the issues encountered during all this time.

In todays world of commercially available government malware you don't want to store your encryption keys on your easily infected computer. You want them stored on something that you could even take into a sauna or a hot-tub - maintaining continuous physical contact.

So people who care about such things use external smartcard-based crypto devices like Ubikey Neos or Nitrokeys (formerly Cryptosticks). The problems with these devices is that you have to enter PIN codes on your computer that you shouldn't trust, that they are either designed for centralized use in organizations, or they are based mostly on PGP.

Acquiring, verifying, trusting and using the correct PGP keys from your peers is also a delicate operational security dance where lots of steps can be easy to mess up. A proper device would be able to directly exchange keys with other similar devices, so that it becomes easier with much less opportunities to err. Another shortcoming of PGP is it's use of aging cryptographic primitives. An adequate device would deploy post-quantum algorithms with protocols that allow forward secrecy, peer anonymity, and other modern concepts missing from PGP.

A well-designed device must also come with a proper threat model. A threat model explains the defensive capabilities and the limits of any security device by making assumptions about the attacker. So that the user can understand how and against what a device protects, what is based on assumptions and what on proofs.

One of Snowdens revelations provided evidence for interdiction attacks, rerouting packages for backdooring hardware while it is shipping to the customer. An ideal device could be bought and assembled locally without leaving a window of opportunity for interdiction attacks. For the most paranoid (or their trusted friends) it should be possible to buy all parts in a local store and assemble such a hardware device at a local workshop. Having all designs and software available for free makes it easy to customize and extend such a device.

You also want a device that doesn't draw attention, you want something like a phone, a smartwatch or a USB stick.

You want a PITCHFORK.

I'm happy to introduce Project: PITCHFORK and to announce the publicly availability of all related sources.

Project:PITCHFORK is an attempt to produce tools to improve and research operational security of individuals and groups.

The PITCHFORK is a small USB device which is a cryptographic swiss army-knife. This is the original concept from 2013 framed as an NSA leak (which confused quite a few friends of mine back then):

PITCHFORK.pdf

Here's the official site:

https://pitchfork.ist, the wiki and most importantly all the related git repos.

If you're into embedded or crypto development the PITCHFORK is a serious device that contains a lot of fun. Cool people from the TU/Nijmegen regularly dump out nice crypto code that is optimized for the Cortex-M series. The PITCHFORK serves three goals, to protect our keys, and to provide a platform for building and breaking crypto on embedded platforms.

A bit of history

Development started in 2013, with the experimental PGP replacement PBP, by trying to run curve25519 operations on a r0ket, and the now quite popular libsodium wrapper pysodium. In late 2013 I got my development board, an Open207 from waveshare and had the first USB storage controller firmware and initial PITCHFORK firmware ready.

In May 2014 I started pyrsp, a tool to make development easier by allowing python scripting directly to control the cpu over Serial Wire Debug (SWD) protocol, which is similar to JTAG but uses less wires. A talk about pyrsp became a hit even on hackaday. A bit later I figured out how easy it is to look for PGP encrypted messages, a variant of that even made it into the file(1) magic signatures. In parallel to pyrsp I started to design the board, inspirations were the original r0ket and the bitcoin trezor project.

The first boards arrived early 2015, but until early summer work was suspended, the first bugs were identified and more during our camp++ where I also gave a talk on the progress (or lack thereof).

Work was suspended until beginning 2016, when a 2nd batch of boards was ordered with all bugs fixed - and a few new ones. Lots of work was done on the HW and the firmware in the first half of 2016, also a Nokia 3310 version was designed and ordered. At the camp++ in 2016 I gave another talk. And we also started to work on the Reflowmaster2000plus Deluxe Pro - a reflow-oven - so that you can indeed bake your own PITCHFORKS at home in your toaster. A first closed beta was run with 15 PITCHFORKS given to contributors.

I'm currently looking to find a good manufacturer - which also does design and produces rugged/waterproof/shielded cases. When I find one finally there'll be a crowdfunding campaign where you can acquire working pitchforks as perks and where you can sponsor future research and development of Project:PITCHFORK.

I must say it was truly an exciting project so far, crypto, low-level HW stuff, assembly, on a platform that reminds me of computing capacities of my early years. Lots of fun and learning. And lots of help from good friends - especially from the Hungarian Autonomous Center for Knowledge, the NLnet and the Renewable Freedom foundations, without their contributions this project would be stuck, and probably forgotten at the bottom of a todo list.