# Dead Printers Tell No Tales

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2026-10-24
- Length: 1h 18m
- Episode: 24
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/226b1683

## Summary

Philip Tricca, a security engineer at Oxide Computer Company, explains the critical process of establishing a Root of Trust (RoT) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for their hardware products. He details the 'key ceremony' required to generate and store secrets securely, highlighting the initial use of a dot matrix printer for printing key shares and the subsequent discovery that tamper-evident packaging was being used incorrectly. The team had to repeat the ceremony to ensure the integrity of the key distribution, which is stored in a bank vault, to prevent spoofing and ensure customer trust before shipping their first rack-scale computers.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=0) Introduction: Movie discussion and schedule chicken
- [6:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=387) The Root of Trust realization and PKI challenges
- [13:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=817) Building the PKI infrastructure from scratch
- [21:24](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=1284) Researching IANA signing ceremonies and transparency
- [29:57](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=1797) The dot matrix printer and key distribution
- [35:04](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=2104) Switching to CD-ROMs and destroying the printer
- [40:16](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=2416) Storing keys in a bank vault and security protocols
- [53:51](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=3231) The tamper-evident packaging failure and re-ceremony
- [1:06:35](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=3995) Evolution of the process and future manufacturing security
- [1:12:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales#t=4335) AI vulnerabilities and the importance of hardware security

## Topics

- [Security & privacy](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/security-and-privacy)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Quality & yield](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/quality-and-yield)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Oxide Computer Company (company)
- Philip Tricca (other)
- Bryan Cantrill (other)
- Adam Leventhal (other)
- IANA (company)
- Caliptra (other)
- AMD (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [PKI and IoT Device Security in 2021 | Keyfactor's Ellen Boehm](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/iot-for-all-podcast/2021-01-12-pki-and-iot-device-security-in-2021-keyfactors-ellen-boehm) (IoT For All Podcast)
- [Ep048: Truly Trustworthy Hardware, Glowing Uranium Marbles, Bitstreaming the USB, Chaos of Congress](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hackaday-podcast/2020-01-01-ep048-truly-trustworthy-hardware-glowing-uranium-marbles-bitstreaming-the-usb-ch) (Hackaday Podcast)
- [451: From Concept to Launch](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2023-06-08-451-from-concept-to-launch) (Embedded.fm)
- [028 - Everyone Has a Bag of Tricks](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/unnamed-reverse-engineering-podcast/2019-09-15-028-everyone-has-a-bag-of-tricks) (Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast)
- [IoT Security & The Importance Certificates with Ellen Boehm, SVP, IoT at Keyfactor](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2023-08-03-iot-security-the-importance-certificates-with-ellen-boehm-svp-iot-at-keyfactor) (Over the Air)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-10-24-dead-printers-tell-no-tales. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Oxide and Friends.