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Penta Security D'Amo KMS

🔍 Last analysed 4th April 2022 . No source for current release found

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The Analysis 

Note: Penta Security Systems has multiple domains related to their business: pentasecurity.co.kr, pentasecurity.co.jp, and pentasecurity.com. Penta Security Systems is Korea-based. Penta Security is the parent company of Amo Labs. Amo Labs is connected to a “reverse ICO” for the AMO token. It is self-described as:

a blockchain infrastructure for the efficient exchange and sharing of all car data powering the next generation of automobiles.

Amo Labs is based in Singapore.

KMS stands for Key Management System.

Product Description

Initially known as Pallet Z, it was announced on November 1, 2019:

D’Amo KMS for cold wallet keeps itself separate from the network, thus eliminating all external threats, making it best suited for enterprise environments. D’Amo KMS for cold wallet utilizes hardware security module (HSM) based on in-house developed Penta Wallet Framework* and runs on established trusted execution environment (TEE) which provides absolute data integrity, robust security and confidentiality in order to prevent against any types of external threats.

The Penta Wallet Framework is Penta Security’s “in-house blockchain algorithm and protocol framework”.

It is part of a package of services/products which also includes Penta Security Wallet Card Bad Interface! .

The D’Amo KMS for cold storage:

  • Creates and manages wallets
  • Signs and approves transactions
  • Creates accounts and manages admins
  • Manages wallet-related policies

In contrast the Penta Security Wallet Card :

  • Transfers transaction information
  • Transfers admin and authentication certificates
  • Authentication based on ownership

Security features

  • Multi Cryptocurrency
  • Multi Admin
  • Multi Signature
  • Multi Wallet
  • Multi Authentication
  • Multi Approval

D’Amo KMS for cold wallet operates all sensitive information only in trusted execution environment (TEE) through hardware security module (HSM) in order to prevent against any theft

Data exchange can only be implemented through D’Amo KMS cold wallet card which blocks all external access via separation from the network

Apart from the device, Penta Security provides services in the form of “Assisted deployment” and “Technical Support”.

Analysis

Marketing for this service/product was at its peak in 2018 and 2019. Rather than describing specific hardware, most of the descriptions seem to be inclined towards a suite of products that function in a process. We can assume that Penta Security generates revenue by offering not just the hardware, but the expertise in deploying such a solution. The physical rendering of the Penta Security D’Amo KMS appears similar to a Rugged Laptop or Notebook.

Intuiting from the available information, we believe that the device is a cold storage device that has a means for communicating with Penta Security’s other devices. If it can create wallets and sign transactions, then as the name KMS or Key Management System implies, it also manages the private keys. To what extent, we can only surmise. If it can provide technical support or “assisted deployment” does that mean that they can have access to the system? It is possible that the service is semi-custodial. But for now, the most apparent verdict that we can glean from the available information is they don’t claim to be an Open Source project and thus do not publicly share their repositories.

(dg)

Verdict Explained

Without public source of the reviewed release available, this product cannot be verified!

As part of our Methodology, we ask:

No Source!

Is the source code publicly available?

If the answer is "no", we mark it as "No source for current release found".

A wallet that claims to not give the provider the means to steal the users’ funds might actually be lying. In the spirit of “Don’t trust - verify!” you don’t want to take the provider at his word, but trust that people hunting for fame and bug bounties could actually find flaws and back-doors in the wallet so the provider doesn’t dare to put these in.

Back-doors and flaws are frequently found in closed source products but some remain hidden for years. And even in open source security software there might be catastrophic flaws undiscovered for years.

An evil wallet provider would certainly prefer not to publish the code, as hiding it makes audits orders of magnitude harder.

For your security, you thus want the code to be available for review.

If the wallet provider doesn’t share up to date code, our analysis stops there as the wallet could steal your funds at any time, and there is no protection except the provider’s word.

“Up to date” strictly means that any instance of the product being updated without the source code being updated counts as closed source. This puts the burden on the provider to always first release the source code before releasing the product’s update. This paragraph is a clarification to our rules following a little poll.

We are not concerned about the license as long as it allows us to perform our analysis. For a security audit, it is not necessary that the provider allows others to use their code for a competing wallet. You should still prefer actual open source licenses as a competing wallet won’t use the code without giving it careful scrutiny.

The product cannot be independently verified. If the provider puts your funds at risk on purpose or by accident, you will probably not know about the issue before people start losing money. If the provider is more criminally inclined he might have collected all the backups of all the wallets, ready to be emptied at the press of a button. The product might have a formidable track record but out of distress or change in management turns out to be evil from some point on, with nobody outside ever knowing before it is too late.