Go: x/crypto/poly1305: implement a subset of the hash.Hash interface

[mundaym]

Currently the interface to poly1305, func Sum(out *[TagSize]byte, msg []byte, key *[32]byte), forces the user to copy everything they want to sum into a single slice (msg). It would be nice to have a way to append multiple slices and then generate the sum.

The main motivation would be to avoid an allocation in the x/crypto/chacha20poly1305 AEAD. We could avoid adding new API surface by implementing this in something like internal/poly1305 but I thought I'd create this proposal to see if we could just add it to the poly1305 package. I'm imagining the API would be used something like (not tested):

zeros := [16]byte{}
h := poly1305.New(key)
h.Write(additionalData)
if len(additionalData) % 16 != 0 {
     h.Write(zeros[:16 - (len(additionalData) % 16)] // pad to 16
}
h.Write(plaintext)
if len(plaintext) % 16 != 0 {
     h.Write(zeros[:16 - (len(plaintext) % 16)] // pad to 16
}
lengths := [16]byte{}
binary.LittleEndian.PutUint64(lengths[0:8], uint64(len(additionalData))
binary.LittleEndian.PutUint64(lengths[8:16], uint64(len(plaintext))
h.Write(lengths[:])
h.Sum(out[:len(plaintext)])

For reference this is the current code:

https://github.com/golang/crypto/blob/613d6eafa307c6881a737a3c35c0e312e8d3a8c5/chacha20poly1305/chacha20poly1305_generic.go#L31-L39

Also, @aead's poly1305 library already implements [EDIT: a subset of] hash.Hash if you want to take a look: https://github.com/aead/poly1305.

[FiloSottile]

Poly1305 is a MAC and not Hash, so the naming would be misleading (although there is precedent in HMAC), it can't be reused with the same key, so Reset would be pointless, and can't be reused after calling Sum as it would be a key reuse.

I don't think hash.Hash is a good fit. Just a simple API with io.Writer and MAC([]byte) []byte would do.

[aead]

I completely agree with Filippo here. That's exactly the reason why I did not implement hash.Hash for poly1305. IIRC this was already part of the chacha20poly1305 work - but was not really needed after Vald's combined assembler implementation.

[mundaym]

Poly1305 is a MAC and not Hash, so the naming would be misleading (although there is precedent in HMAC), it can't be reused with the same key, so Reset would be pointless, and can't be reused after calling Sum as it would be a key reuse.

I don't think hash.Hash is a good fit. Just a simple API with io.Writer and MAC([]byte) []byte would do.

SGTM. I think I'd use the function name Sum() to match HMAC (that would allow people to make their own MAC interface and switch between the two), but I don't really mind.

IIRC this was already part of the chacha20poly1305 - but was not really needed after Vlad's combined assembler implementation.

Yeah, I'm hoping this and the chacha20 API changes make it possible to get good performance without the complexity of the combined assembly approach.

[FiloSottile]

I think I'd use the function name Sum() to match HMAC

Sure. But panic on anything after it is called once.

Yeah, I'm hoping this and the chacha20 API changes make it possible to get good performance without the complexity of the combined assembly approach.

You have all my support to make that happen BTW. Reducing the need for and amount of assembly is an explicit goal/wishlist item of mine. Let me know if you need anything from my side in that sense.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/111335 mentions this issue: poly1305: implement a subset of the hash.Hash interface

[FiloSottile]

This is still missing the arm and s390x implementations.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/219057 mentions this issue: poly1305: modify s390x assembly to implement MAC interface

[mundaym]

I think CL 219057 was the final part of this so closing the issue.