The Security Architecture of Ledger Atom™

Before You Dive In

• On Ledger Atom™, a standard OS runs everyday apps*, and Ledger OS™  on a separate secure chip guards your keys, secrets, and approvals. The two never cross over.
• When something needs your approval, the device switches to Secure Mode: Ledger OS takes over the screen and the Secure Bar lights up, so what you see is exactly what you approve.
• Ledger Atom is a platform, so any app can use the secure screen and secure chip through a single API call.

Standard OS for Apps, Ledger OS™ for Secrets

Most of our digital lives run on the apps we already know. So we asked a simple question. What if you could have the ease of an OS built on the Android™ Open Source Project and the security of Ledger, in the same device? That is Ledger Atom.

Ledger Atom has two worlds inside. On the main processor, a standard OS built on the Android™ Open Source Project runs your everyday apps*. Ledger OS, our own operating system, runs on a separate secure chip, the same smartcard technology that protects your bank card, passport, and Ledger device, with its own co-processor for the screen.

The two worlds run in parallel. They never cross.

The Secure Screen Shows You What You Approve

Between the two screens sits a dedicated circuit, an FPGA, that decides what appears on your screen: standard mode, or Secure Mode. And it is Ledger OS, on the secure chip, that makes that call.

The screen is the most important piece, because the worst attacks work by faking what you see. That is how $1.5B was stolen from Bybit last year. The people approving saw one transaction on their screens, and signed another.

On Ledger Atom, when something needs your approval, the Ledger OS takes over the screen. The Secure Bar lights up, so you always know which world you are in. What you see is exactly what you approve. Enforced by hardware, like every Ledger signer before it.

And we didn’t stop at the screen. The privacy switch cuts the camera and microphone in the circuit itself. Not in software. In hardware.

Privacy & Tamper Protection Are Built Into the Hardware

Security starts before you turn the device on. Supply chain risks have existed for years. Large criminal organizations are now trying to breach supply chains at scale, and defending against that is hard. 

Today, every Ledger device carries a unique cryptographic attestation. It  ensures that the code inside the Secure Element is legitimate.

But an attestation cannot catch an implant spying on the screen. So over the past few months, we developed something new: an active shield around Ledger Atom’s secure zone, designed to detect any attempt to touch, open, probe, or modify it before the device reaches you. If it is triggered, the Secure Element knows, and it reacts.

Ledger Atom Is a Platform

A product is something you buy. Ledger Atom is a platform. 

We have spent a decade building a unique security architecture. With Ledger Atom, it reaches developers building on the Android Open Source Project for the first time: Ledger Agent Stack, including Ledger Agent Intent**, and the Device Management Kit. 

Everyday apps run on Ledger Atom out of the box.* And whenever your app needs cryptography or security, it reaches the secure screen and the secure chip through a single API call, instead of rebuilding security from scratch. If you build on the Android Open Source Project, you already know how to build for Ledger Atom.

Integrate once, and your app works the same way on Ledger Atom and across every Ledger. Messaging, digital payments, identity, games, things none of us have thought of yet. Build it, and it inherits the secure screen. That holds for one developer building an agent and for an institution running a fleet of them.

And we planned for what’s coming. Ledger Atom is quantum-ready by design, compatible with the new NIST standards. When the world migrates to post-quantum cryptography, Ledger Atom is already there.

That’s the idea. Everything you love about the Android Open Source Project, with Ledger security underneath. A platform for a whole new world of secure experiences, built by all of us. If you build agents or apps, start at developers.ledger.com.

Ledger Atom ships in 2027. Reserve it today.

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Charles Guillemet, Chief Technology Officer at Ledger

* App availability depends on certifications and licences and will be confirmed before your device ships.

** Crypto transaction services referenced or facilitated through Ledger Agent Intent are provided by third-party service providers. Any AI agent used in connection with Ledger Agent Intent is also a third-party tool and is not provided, operated, or endorsed by Ledger. Ledger provides no financial advice or recommendations on the use of these third-party services or any AI agent. 

Android is a trademark of Google LLC.