nRF5x nrf_crypto backend choices between Oberon or Micro-ECC

[mtsunstrum]

I am starting to get up to speed on nrf_crypto, but trying to understand under what scenarios would one choose between Oberon or micro-ECC backend ?

HW = nRF52832, SDK 16.0.0

I can see micro-ECC does not have HASH or HMAC capabilities.

But under what scenarios would I need HASH/HMAC ?

In reading https://medium.com/rtone-iot-security/deep-dive-into-bluetooth-le-security-d2301d640bfc I would be interested in Security Mode 1 / Security Level 2 (or higher)

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

trying to understand under what scenarios would one choose between Oberon or micro-ECC backend ?

micro_ecc backend provides functionality to use micro_ecc in nrf_crypto. 

nrf_oberon backend provides functionality to use the nrf_oberon runtime library in nrf_crypto. This library implements a selected number of cryptographic functions primarily used in BLE contexts in the nRF5 SDK.

Please see the Default backends for examples using nrf_crypto. 

But under what scenarios would I need HASH/HMAC ?

HMAC is a message authentication algorithm based on the hash function. It depends on what algorithm you want to use. This post might help you. 

 

In reading https://medium.com/rtone-iot-security/deep-dive-into-bluetooth-le-security-d2301d640bfc I would be interested in Security Mode 1 / Security Level 2 (or higher)

 You can perform bonding using LESC Just Works (LE security mode 1 level 2). Please check out some links in this thread. 

-Amanda H.