The CryptoCape is the BeagleBone’s first dedicated security daughterboard and was made in collaboration with our Hacker In Residence, Josh Datko. Known as “shields” on other platforms, a BeagleBone cape attaches to the expansion headers of the BeagleBone. This cape adds specialized ICs that perform various cryptographic operations which will allow you to add a hardware security layer to your BeagleBone project. It also is a nice device for those performing embedded security research. Needless to say this is a great product for those of you who are interested in computer security!

On board each CryptoCape is a slew of hardware fresh for your use: a 256k EEPROM with a defaulted I2C address and write protection, a real time clock (RTC) module to keep accurate time, a trusted platform module (TPM) for RSA encryption/decryption and signing in the hardware, an AES-128 encrypted EEPROM, an ATSHA204 authentication chip that performs SHA-256 and HMAC-25, and an ATECC108 that performs the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). You will also find an ATmega328p and a large prototyping area available on the board. The ATmega is loaded with the Arduino Pro Mini 3.3V bootloader and has broken out most of the signals to surrounding pads.

Each CryptoCape comes with pre-soldered headers making this board ready to be attached to your BeagleBone as soon as you get it. The only additional item you will need to get the CryptoCape fully functional is a CR1225 coin cell battery which can be found in the Recommended Products section below.

The CryptoCape is a registered BeagleBone cape whose firmware is included in the latest BeagleBone debian images. However, you may need to upgrade your image to retrieve the latest software. Check the Hookup Guide below for instructions on installing the cape firmware.

Note: A portion of each sale is given back to Josh Datko for continued development of new and exciting Cryptographic tools.

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