Adds a declassify operation to aid constant-time analysis.

ECDSA signing has a retry loop for the exceptionally unlikely case
 that S==0.  S is not a secret at this point and this case is so
 rare that it will never be observed but branching on it will trip
 up tools analysing if the code is constant time with respect to
 secrets.

Derandomized ECDSA can also loop on k being zero or overflowing,
 and while k is a secret these cases are too rare (1:2^255) to
 ever observe and are also of no concern.

This adds a function for marking memory as no-longer-secret and
 sets it up for use with the valgrind memcheck constant-time
 test.

Author: gmaxwell

.travis.yml

@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@ language: c
 os: linux
 addons:
   apt:
-    packages: libgmp-dev
+    packages:
+      - libgmp-dev
+      - valgrind
 compiler:
   - clang
   - gcc
@@ -60,18 +62,10 @@ matrix:
       env:
         - BIGNUM=no  ENDOMORPHISM=yes  ASM=x86_64 EXPERIMENTAL=yes ECDH=yes  RECOVERY=yes
         - VALGRIND=yes EXTRAFLAGS="--disable-openssl-tests CPPFLAGS=-DVALGRIND" BUILD=
-      addons:
-        apt:
-          packages:
-            - valgrind
     - compiler: gcc
       env: # The same as above but without endomorphism.
         - BIGNUM=no  ENDOMORPHISM=no  ASM=x86_64 EXPERIMENTAL=yes ECDH=yes  RECOVERY=yes
         - VALGRIND=yes EXTRAFLAGS="--disable-openssl-tests CPPFLAGS=-DVALGRIND" BUILD=
-      addons:
-        apt:
-          packages:
-            - valgrind
 
 before_script: ./autogen.sh
 

Makefile.am

@@ -69,6 +69,10 @@ libsecp256k1_la_SOURCES = src/secp256k1.c
 libsecp256k1_la_CPPFLAGS = -DSECP256K1_BUILD -I$(top_srcdir)/include -I$(top_srcdir)/src $(SECP_INCLUDES)
 libsecp256k1_la_LIBADD = $(SECP_LIBS) $(COMMON_LIB)
 
+if VALGRIND_ENABLED
+libsecp256k1_la_CPPFLAGS += -DVALGRIND
+endif
+
 noinst_PROGRAMS =
 if USE_BENCHMARK
 noinst_PROGRAMS += bench_verify bench_sign bench_internal bench_ecmult

configure.ac

@@ -170,6 +170,9 @@ AC_ARG_WITH([ecmult-gen-precision], [AS_HELP_STRING([--with-ecmult-gen-precision
 
 AC_CHECK_TYPES([__int128])
 
+AC_CHECK_HEADER([valgrind/memcheck.h], [enable_valgrind=yes], [enable_valgrind=no], [])
+AM_CONDITIONAL([VALGRIND_ENABLED],[test "$enable_valgrind" = "yes"])
+
 if test x"$enable_coverage" = x"yes"; then
     AC_DEFINE(COVERAGE, 1, [Define this symbol to compile out all VERIFY code])
     CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -O0 --coverage"

include/secp256k1.h

@@ -162,12 +162,14 @@ typedef int (*secp256k1_nonce_function)(
 /** The higher bits contain the actual data. Do not use directly. */
 #define SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_VERIFY (1 << 8)
 #define SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_SIGN (1 << 9)
+#define SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_DECLASSIFY (1 << 10)
 #define SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_COMPRESSION (1 << 8)
 
 /** Flags to pass to secp256k1_context_create, secp256k1_context_preallocated_size, and
  *  secp256k1_context_preallocated_create. */
 #define SECP256K1_CONTEXT_VERIFY (SECP256K1_FLAGS_TYPE_CONTEXT | SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_VERIFY)
 #define SECP256K1_CONTEXT_SIGN (SECP256K1_FLAGS_TYPE_CONTEXT | SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_SIGN)
+#define SECP256K1_CONTEXT_DECLASSIFY (SECP256K1_FLAGS_TYPE_CONTEXT | SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_DECLASSIFY)
 #define SECP256K1_CONTEXT_NONE (SECP256K1_FLAGS_TYPE_CONTEXT)
 
 /** Flag to pass to secp256k1_ec_pubkey_serialize. */

src/secp256k1.c

@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@
 #include "hash_impl.h"
 #include "scratch_impl.h"
 
+#if defined(VALGRIND)
+# include <valgrind/memcheck.h>
+#endif
+
 #define ARG_CHECK(cond) do { \
     if (EXPECT(!(cond), 0)) { \
         secp256k1_callback_call(&ctx->illegal_callback, #cond); \
@@ -66,13 +70,15 @@ struct secp256k1_context_struct {
     secp256k1_ecmult_gen_context ecmult_gen_ctx;
     secp256k1_callback illegal_callback;
     secp256k1_callback error_callback;
+    int declassify;
 };
 
 static const secp256k1_context secp256k1_context_no_precomp_ = {
     { 0 },
     { 0 },
     { secp256k1_default_illegal_callback_fn, 0 },
-    { secp256k1_default_error_callback_fn, 0 }
+    { secp256k1_default_error_callback_fn, 0 },
+    0
 };
 const secp256k1_context *secp256k1_context_no_precomp = &secp256k1_context_no_precomp_;
 
@@ -132,6 +138,7 @@ secp256k1_context* secp256k1_context_preallocated_create(void* prealloc, unsigne
     if (flags & SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_VERIFY) {
         secp256k1_ecmult_context_build(&ret->ecmult_ctx, &prealloc);
     }
+    ret->declassify = !!(flags & SECP256K1_FLAGS_BIT_CONTEXT_DECLASSIFY);
 
     return (secp256k1_context*) ret;
 }
@@ -215,6 +222,20 @@ void secp256k1_scratch_space_destroy(const secp256k1_context *ctx, secp256k1_scr
     secp256k1_scratch_destroy(&ctx->error_callback, scratch);
 }
 
+/* Mark memory as no-longer-secret for the purpose of analysing constant-time behaviour
+ *  of the software. This is setup for use with valgrind but could be substituted with
+ *  the appropriate instrumentation for other analysis tools.
+ */
+static SECP256K1_INLINE void secp256k1_declassify(const secp256k1_context* ctx, void *p, size_t len) {
+#if defined(VALGRIND)
+    if (EXPECT(ctx->declassify,0)) VALGRIND_MAKE_MEM_DEFINED(p, len);
+#else
+    (void)ctx;
+    (void)p;
+    (void)len;
+#endif
+}
+
 static int secp256k1_pubkey_load(const secp256k1_context* ctx, secp256k1_ge* ge, const secp256k1_pubkey* pubkey) {
     if (sizeof(secp256k1_ge_storage) == 64) {
         /* When the secp256k1_ge_storage type is exactly 64 byte, use its
@@ -474,8 +495,14 @@ int secp256k1_ecdsa_sign(const secp256k1_context* ctx, secp256k1_ecdsa_signature
             break;
         }
         secp256k1_scalar_set_b32(&non, nonce32, &koverflow);
-        if (!koverflow && !secp256k1_scalar_is_zero(&non)) {
-            if (secp256k1_ecdsa_sig_sign(&ctx->ecmult_gen_ctx, &r, &s, &sec, &msg, &non, NULL)) {
+        koverflow |= secp256k1_scalar_is_zero(&non);
+        /* The nonce is still secret here, but it overflowing or being zero is is less likely than 1:2^255. */
+        secp256k1_declassify(ctx, &koverflow, sizeof(koverflow));
+        if (!koverflow) {
+            ret = secp256k1_ecdsa_sig_sign(&ctx->ecmult_gen_ctx, &r, &s, &sec, &msg, &non, NULL);
+            /* The final signature is no longer a secret, nor is the fact that we were successful or not. */
+            secp256k1_declassify(ctx, &ret, sizeof(ret));
+            if (ret) {
                 break;
             }
         }