NAME
Crypt::Ed25519 - bare-bones Ed25519 public key signing/verification
system
SYNOPSIS
use Crypt::Ed25519; # no symbols exported
############################################
# Ed25519 API - public/private keypair
# generate a public/private key pair once
($pubkey, $privkey) = Crypt::Ed25519::generate_keypair;
# sign a message
$signature = Crypt::Ed25519::sign $message, $pubkey, $privkey;
# verify message
$valid = Crypt::Ed25519::verify $message, $pubkey, $signature;
# verify, but croak on failure
Crypt::Ed25519::verify_croak $message, $pubkey, $signature;
############################################
# EdDSA API - secret key and derived public key
# generate a secret key
$secret = Crypt::EdDSA::eddsa_secret_key;
# derive public key as needed
$pubkey = Crypt::EdDSA::eddsa_public_key $secret;
# sign a message
$signature = Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_sign $message, $pubkey, $secret;
# verify message
$valid = Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_verify $message, $pubkey, $signature;
# verify, but croak on failure
Crypt::Ed25519:eddsa_verify_croak $message, $pubkey, $signature;
DESCRIPTION
This module implements Ed25519 public key generation, message signing
and verification. It is a pretty bare-bones implementation that
implements the standard Ed25519 variant with SHA512 hash, as well as a
slower API compatible with the upcoming EdDSA RFC.
The security target for Ed25519 is to be equivalent to 3000 bit RSA or
AES-128.
The advantages of Ed25519 over most other signing algorithms are: small
public/private key and signature sizes (<= 64 octets), good key
generation, signing and verification performance, no reliance on random
number generators for signing and by-design immunity against branch or
memory access pattern side-channel attacks.
More detailed praise and other info can be found at
<http://ed25519.cr.yp.to/index.html>.
CRYPTOGRAPHY IS HARD
A word of caution: don't use this module unless you really know what you
are doing - even if this module were completely error-free, that still
doesn't mean that every way of using it is correct. When in doubt, it's
best not to design your own cryptographic protocol.
CONVENTIONS
Public/private/secret keys, messages and signatures are all opaque and
architecture-independent octet strings, and, except for the message,
have fixed lengths.
Ed25519 API
($public_key, $private_key) = Crypt::Ed25519::generate_keypair
Creates and returns a new random public and private key pair. The
public key is always 32 octets, the private key is always 64 octets
long.
($public_key, $private_key) = Crypt::Ed25519::generate_keypair
$secret_key
Instead of generating a random keypair, generate them from the given
$secret_key (e.g. as returned by "Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_secret_key".
The derivation is deterministic, i.e. a specific $secret_key will
always result in the same keypair.
A secret key is simply a random bit string, so if you have a good
source of key material, you can simply generate 32 octets from it
and use this as your secret key.
$signature = Crypt::Ed25519::sign $message, $public_key, $private_key
Generates a signature for the given message using the public and
private keys. The signature is always 64 octets long and
deterministic, i.e. it is always the same for a specific combination
of $message, $public_key and $private_key, i.e. no external source
of randomness is required for signing.
$valid = Crypt::Ed25519::verify $message, $public_key, $signature
Checks whether the $signature is valid for the $message and
$public_ke.
Crypt::Ed25519::verify_croak $message, $public_key, $signature
Same as "Crypt::Ed25519::verify", but instead of returning a
boolean, simply croaks with an error message when the signature
isn't valid, so you don't have to think about what the return value
really means.
EdDSA compatible API
The upcoming EdDSA draft RFC uses a slightly different (and slower) API
for Ed25519. This API is provided by the following functions:
$secret_key = Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_secret_key
Creates and returns a new secret key, which is always 32 octets
long. The secret key can be used to generate the public key via
"Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_public_key" and is not the same as the
private key used in the Ed25519 API.
A secret key is simply a random bit string, so if you have a good
source of key material, you can simply generate 32 octets from it
and use this as your secret key.
$public_key = Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_public_key $secret_key
Takes a secret key generated by "Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_secret_key"
and returns the corresponding $public_key. The derivation is
deterministic, i.e. the $public_key generated for a specific
$secret_key is always the same.
This public key corresponds to the public key in the Ed25519 API
above.
$signature = Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_sign $message, $public_key,
$secret_key
Generates a signature for the given message using the public and
secret keys. Apart from specifying the $secret_key, this function is
identical to "Crypt::Ed25519::sign", so everything said about it is
true for this function as well.
Internally, "Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_sign" derives the corresponding
private key first and then calls "Crypt::Ed25519::sign", so it is
always slower.
$valid = Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_verify $message, $public_key, $signature
Crypt::Ed25519::eddsa_verify_croak $message, $public_key, $signature
Really the same as "Crypt::Ed25519::verify" and
"Crypt::Ed25519::verify_croak", i.e. the functions without the
"eddsa_" prefix. These aliases are provided so it's clear that you
are using EdDSA and not Ed25519 API.
CONVERTING BETWEEN Ed25519 and EdDSA
The Ed25519 and EdDSA compatible APIs handle keys slightly differently:
The Ed25519 API gives you a public/private key pair, while EdDSA takes a
secret and generates a public key from it.
You can convert an EdDSA secret to an Ed25519 private/public key pair
using "Crypt::Ed25519::generate_keypair":
($public_key, $private_key) = Crypt::Ed25519::generate_keypair $secret
As such, the EdDSA-style API allows you to store only the secret key and
derive the public key as needed. On the other hand, signing using the
private key is faster than using the secret key, so converting the
secret key to a public/private key pair allows you to sign a small
message, or many messages, faster.
SUPPORT FOR THE PERL MULTICORE SPECIFICATION
This module supports the perl multicore specification
(<http://perlmulticore.schmorp.de/>) for key generation (usually the
slowest operation), and all signing and verification functions.
IMPLEMENTATIOIN
This module currently uses "Nightcracker's Ed25519" implementation,
which is unmodified except for some portability fixes and static
delcarations, but the interface is kept implementation-agnostic to allow
usage of other implementations in the future.
AUTHOR
Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
http://sfotware.schmorp.de/pkg/Crypt-Ed25519.html