On 09/15/2009 08:51 AM, Andreev Konstantin wrote:
Hello.

At the moment NSS head supports 6 hash algorithm: md2,md5,sha{,-256,-384,-512}.

However, their implementations in freebl backend have no consistent semantics for method

*hash*_End( Context *, unsigned char *digest, unsigned int *digestLen, unsigned int maxDigestLen )

Look how various hashes handle (maxDigestLen < REAL_HASH_LENGTH) case:

  MD2_End,MD5_End:
    PORT_SetError(SEC_ERROR_INVALID_ARGS) then return.
      - there is no other indication to the caller about error occured
- they do not care about clearing error if maxDigestLen is sufficient

  SHA1_End:
    application dies with post-mortem message.

  SHA{256,384,512}_End:
    return only maxDigestLen of digest
      - there is no error indication to the caller at all

I should correctly add GOST hash algorithm to the NSS, but which semantics should I implement for GOST_End() ?

These are private interfaces for NSS softoken, applications can not call them directly. It's fine to require maxDigestLen to be at least REAL_HASH_LENGTH. You may assert or not in GOST.

I would propose to unify *hash*_End() semantics for (maxDigestLen < REAL_HASH_LENGTH) as follows:

  1) return only maxDigestLen of digest
  2) always set digestLen to the real hash length.
3) do *not* kill application (this is unfriendly), do not SetError(). The caller can always detect digest buffer shortage from the fact (digestLen > maxDigestLen), and caller now knows required buffer length from digestLen.

You are assuming applications have access to these functions. If the caller passes something less than REAL_HASH_LENGTH for maxDigestLen, then it's a bug in the internals of NSS. If this were to change we would also update the remaining hash functions.

bob

-- 
dev-tech-crypto mailing list
dev-tech-crypto@lists.mozilla.org
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-crypto

Reply via email to