8237219: Disabling the native SunEC implementation

Tue Mar 3 19:42:19 UTC 2020

On 3/3/20 11:18 AM, Sean Mullan wrote:
> On 3/3/20 1:42 PM, Anthony Scarpino wrote:
>> On 3/3/20 8:34 AM, Sean Mullan wrote:
>>> Wouldn't it be better to throw an Exception when you call 
>>> Signature.initSign/Verify() and KeyAgreement.init() rather than 
>>> waiting until you sign/verify or generateSecret? This way you bail 
>>> out early before you start processing data.
>>>
>>> Also, throwing a ProviderException (a RuntimeException) could be a 
>>> behavioral change that an application may not be prepared for. We 
>>> have never done a very good job of documenting when ProviderException 
>>> can be thrown by the JCE APIs, however. But we should think about 
>>> this and whether maybe you want to throw InvalidKeyException instead 
>>> which is already specified in the throws clause of the init methods. 
>>> In any case it should be documented as a potential compatibility 
>>> issue in the CSR.
>>
>>
>> Unfortunately curve support decisions are not made until the library 
>> is accessed. You will notice the checks that call native are not until 
>> the operation is starting, like engineSign().  If an unsupported curve 
>> is used in the existing code, this is where the error is generated 
>> from. The native code does generate an 
>> InvalidAlgorithmParameterException.  I had chose ProviderException 
>> because it was a provider support change. I had thought about IAPE, 
>> but choose a bit more drastic action. That said, I'm fine with using 
>> IAPE.
> 
> Hmm, but engineSign, engineVerify, engineGenerateSecret don't throw IAPE.

The native code throws it and it's wrapped in a SignatureException.

For generateKeyPair() the existing code threw a ProviderException 
because the method doesn't specify any exceptions.  That probably pushed 
me toward ProviderException in other cases too.

> 
> I think it should probably be the same behavior as if the library did 
> not exist. What do we throw now if the library has been removed?

Maybe you missed one paragraph below?  Without the library in the 
existing code we never got past getInstance() because those algorithms 
like SHA256withECDSA were not available.  After Max's verify change, 
they are now.

> 
>> If one was to remove libsunec, the existing code disables algorithms 
>> like SHA256withECDSA which makes it easier to separate native from 
>> java implementations.  But that is not true anymore with the java 
>> implementation supporting the NIST curves.  Some of these same 
>> decisions affect both property disabling and library removal.
>>
>> In the past we have had similar Signature discussions before about 
>> when Signature.setParameter() being called before or after init().  I 
>> have to wonder if the original provider design followed the same logic 
>> where errors are generated later in the process.  Also there are some 
>> decisions in this provider that look similar to SunPKCS11 as both wait 
>> until the last moment to ask the native library.
>>
>>>
>>> Did you consider documenting the system property in the API javadocs 
>>> for Signature, KeyPairGenerator, KeyAgreement? I realize this is 
>>> specific to the SunEC provider, but this would help users know how to 
>>> enable the system property (on the hopefully rare case) they get an 
>>> exception and still want to use one of these curves. It could be 
>>> something like:
>>>
>>> @implNote By default, the SunEC provider throws ...Exception if the 
>>> key is using a legacy curve. Set the {@systemProperty 
>>> jdk.sunec.disableNative} to {@code false} to disable this behavior.
>>>
>>
>> I don't think putting in the API about one particular provider 
>> implementation detail is a proper place.  I think this belongs in 
>> release notes, and maybe the provider doc.
> 
> Yeah, I am kind of on the fence about that myself as I don't necessarily 
> want to clutter the APIs with provider-specific stuff, but OTOH, most of 
> the security-related system properties *are* provider-specific, so we 
> lose the nice feature of seeing how different system properties affect 
> existing APIs while you are reading the javadoc. But, I think we 
> probably need to decide on a more general policy for documenting 
> provider-specific system properties first. So I guess we can hold off on 
> this for now.
> 
> --Sean
> 
>>> --Sean
>>>
>>> On 3/2/20 7:40 PM, Anthony Scarpino wrote:
>>>> Hi
>>>>
>>>> I need a review of the CSR and webrev for disabling by default the 
>>>> native SunEC curves from the API.  With the recent verification 
>>>> changes in JDK-8237218, SunJCE is long dependent on the native code 
>>>> for verifying the constant-time curves.  This disabling can be 
>>>> undone with setting a  system property, jdk.sunec.disableNative.  
>>>> I'm doing a simultaneous review as changes for one  will likely 
>>>> affect the other.
>>>>
>>>> CSR: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8238911
>>>> webrev: https://cr.openjdk.java.net/~ascarpino/8237219/
>>>>
>>>> The curves affected are:
>>>> secp112r1, secp112r2, secp128r1, secp128r2, secp160k1, secp160r1, 
>>>> secp160r2, secp192k1, secp192r1, secp224k1, secp224r1, secp256k1, 
>>>> sect113r1, sect113r2, sect131r1, sect131r2, sect163k1, sect163r1, 
>>>> sect163r2, sect193r1, sect193r2, sect233k1, sect233r1, sect239k1, 
>>>> sect283k1, sect283r1, sect409k1, sect409r1, sect571k1, sect571r1, 
>>>> X9.62 c2tnb191v1, X9.62 c2tnb191v2, X9.62 c2tnb191v3, X9.62 
>>>> c2tnb239v1, X9.62 c2tnb239v2, X9.62 c2tnb239v3, X9.62 c2tnb359v1, 
>>>> X9.62 c2tnb431r1, X9.62 prime192v2, X9.62 prime192v3, X9.62 
>>>> prime239v1, X9.62 prime239v2, X9.62 prime239v3, brainpoolP256r1 
>>>> brainpoolP320r1, brainpoolP384r1, brainpoolP512r1
>>>>
>>>> Tony
>>