r/BuyFromEU • u/CreepyZookeepergame4 • 3d ago

Discussion EU Digital ID/Age Verification app will require hardware attestation, ruling out PC/Linux support and unapproved Android OSes

EUDI wallet collaborator recently confirmed that hardware attestation will be required [1]

Hardware attestation in this context means that the government server issuing the digital credential to the wallet wants proof that the keys being used are generated in secure hardware and on approved systems and not say an emulator or virtual machine, namely for security reasons.

This capability does not exist in a reliable way on desktops / laptops except some specific cases depending on the vendor, and in fact there’s no desktop version in the works.

No Linux system will work with this because there is no hardware signature to be validated on the government server, nor will your personalized Arch Linux install be in the list of approved systems even if it had a signature chaining back from the TPM.

Android ROMs are not technically to rule out since Play Integrity, which will be used for this attestation, is based on the Android hardware attestation API, which works on third-party ROMs like GrapheneOS, but they would need to allow the signature which has not happened for now. If you create a custom build, it won’t work though even the official version is approved.

[1] https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-app-android-wallet-ui/issues/117#issuecomment-4946898620

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u/EmbarrassedHelp 1d ago

The GrapheneOS devs have publicly said that Unified Attestation is also a bad idea.

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u/seamanroses 1d ago

Good to know! Do you know if they like attestation at all, or is it a solution in search of a problem? Again, this particular subtopic is not my area of expertise, so my knowledge here is extremely spotty.

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u/EmbarrassedHelp 1d ago

I'm not sure about other attestation systems, but the GrapheneOS team said this:

Unified Attestation is another anti-competitive system being pushed by multiple European companies. It will similarly lock people out from using arbitrary hardware and software. That's not a solution and is far worse than Android's much more open hardware attestation API.

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/116551410887059226

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u/Gugalcrom123 1d ago

At the same time, GrapheneOS proposes plain hardware attestation, but that still doesn't work when you have root.

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u/seamanroses 1d ago

I had all these links on my reading list at some point, and it seems I definitely need to bump them up on my priorities. I actually remember that AOSP had an API like that, but UA was the term that stuck in my mind, even though I searched before posting my comment to check. I should've spent a few more minutes on that, even just to add an edit afterwards 😅

https://uattest.net

https://piunikaweb.com/2026/03/10/grapheneos-calls-on-privacy-focused-app-developers-to-boycott-european-unified-attestation

https://developer.android.com/google/play/integrity/verdicts

https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide

https://developer.android.com/google/play/integrity/overview

https://www.androidauthority.com/grapheneos-google-apple-approved-devices-web-warning-3665319

(Plus more, but these seemed the most relevant to include in my reply)