PROTOCOL.chacha20poly1305 - platform/external/openssh - Gitiles

 This document describes the chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com authenticated
 encryption cipher supported by OpenSSH.

 Background
 ----------

 ChaCha20 is a stream cipher designed by Daniel Bernstein and described
 in [1]. It operates by permuting 128 fixed bits, 128 or 256 bits of key,
 a 64 bit nonce and a 64 bit counter into 64 bytes of output. This output
 is used as a keystream, with any unused bytes simply discarded.

 Poly1305[2], also by Daniel Bernstein, is a one-time Carter-Wegman MAC
 that computes a 128 bit integrity tag given a message and a single-use
 256 bit secret key.

 The chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com combines these two primitives into an
 authenticated encryption mode. The construction used is based on that
 proposed for TLS by Adam Langley in [3], but differs in the layout of
 data passed to the MAC and in the addition of encyption of the packet
 lengths.

 Negotiation
 -----------

 The chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com offers both encryption and
 authentication. As such, no separate MAC is required. If the
 chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com cipher is selected in key exchange,
 the offered MAC algorithms are ignored and no MAC is required to be
 negotiated.

 Detailed Construction
 ---------------------

 The chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com cipher requires 512 bits of key
 material as output from the SSH key exchange. This forms two 256 bit
 keys (K_1 and K_2), used by two separate instances of chacha20.

 The instance keyed by K_1 is a stream cipher that is used only
 to encrypt the 4 byte packet length field. The second instance,
 keyed by K_2, is used in conjunction with poly1305 to build an AEAD
 (Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data) that is used to encrypt
 and authenticate the entire packet.

 Two separate cipher instances are used here so as to keep the packet
 lengths confidential but not create an oracle for the packet payload
 cipher by decrypting and using the packet length prior to checking
 the MAC. By using an independently-keyed cipher instance to encrypt the
 length, an active attacker seeking to exploit the packet input handling
 as a decryption oracle can learn nothing about the payload contents or
 its MAC (assuming key derivation, ChaCha20 and Poly1305 are secure).

 The AEAD is constructed as follows: for each packet, generate a Poly1305
 key by taking the first 256 bits of ChaCha20 stream output generated
 using K_2, an IV consisting of the packet sequence number encoded as an
 uint64 under the SSH wire encoding rules and a ChaCha20 block counter of
 zero. The K_2 ChaCha20 block counter is then set to the little-endian
 encoding of 1 (i.e. {1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}) and this instance is used
 for encryption of the packet payload.

 Packet Handling
 ---------------

 When receiving a packet, the length must be decrypted first. When 4
 bytes of ciphertext length have been received, they may be decrypted
 using the K_1 key, a nonce consisting of the packet sequence number
 encoded as a uint64 under the usual SSH wire encoding and a zero block
 counter to obtain the plaintext length.

 Once the entire packet has been received, the MAC MUST be checked
 before decryption. A per-packet Poly1305 key is generated as described
 above and the MAC tag calculated using Poly1305 with this key over the
 ciphertext of the packet length and the payload together. The calculated
 MAC is then compared in constant time with the one appended to the
 packet and the packet decrypted using ChaCha20 as described above (with
 K_2, the packet sequence number as nonce and a starting block counter of
 1).

 To send a packet, first encode the 4 byte length and encrypt it using
 K_1. Encrypt the packet payload (using K_2) and append it to the
 encrypted length. Finally, calculate a MAC tag and append it.

 Rekeying
 --------

 ChaCha20 must never reuse a {key, nonce} for encryption nor may it be
 used to encrypt more than 2^70 bytes under the same {key, nonce}. The
 SSH Transport protocol (RFC4253) recommends a far more conservative
 rekeying every 1GB of data sent or received. If this recommendation
 is followed, then chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com requires no special
 handling in this area.

 References
 ----------

 [1] "ChaCha, a variant of Salsa20", Daniel Bernstein
     http://cr.yp.to/chacha/chacha-20080128.pdf

 [2] "The Poly1305-AES message-authentication code", Daniel Bernstein
     http://cr.yp.to/mac/poly1305-20050329.pdf

 [3] "ChaCha20 and Poly1305 based Cipher Suites for TLS", Adam Langley
     http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-agl-tls-chacha20poly1305-03

 $OpenBSD: PROTOCOL.chacha20poly1305,v 1.2 2013/12/02 02:50:27 djm Exp $
	This document describes the chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com authenticated
	encryption cipher supported by OpenSSH.

	Background
	----------

	ChaCha20 is a stream cipher designed by Daniel Bernstein and described
	in [1]. It operates by permuting 128 fixed bits, 128 or 256 bits of key,
	a 64 bit nonce and a 64 bit counter into 64 bytes of output. This output
	is used as a keystream, with any unused bytes simply discarded.

	Poly1305[2], also by Daniel Bernstein, is a one-time Carter-Wegman MAC
	that computes a 128 bit integrity tag given a message and a single-use
	256 bit secret key.

	The chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com combines these two primitives into an
	authenticated encryption mode. The construction used is based on that
	proposed for TLS by Adam Langley in [3], but differs in the layout of
	data passed to the MAC and in the addition of encyption of the packet
	lengths.

	Negotiation
	-----------

	The chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com offers both encryption and
	authentication. As such, no separate MAC is required. If the
	chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com cipher is selected in key exchange,
	the offered MAC algorithms are ignored and no MAC is required to be
	negotiated.

	Detailed Construction
	---------------------

	The chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com cipher requires 512 bits of key
	material as output from the SSH key exchange. This forms two 256 bit
	keys (K_1 and K_2), used by two separate instances of chacha20.

	The instance keyed by K_1 is a stream cipher that is used only
	to encrypt the 4 byte packet length field. The second instance,
	keyed by K_2, is used in conjunction with poly1305 to build an AEAD
	(Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data) that is used to encrypt
	and authenticate the entire packet.

	Two separate cipher instances are used here so as to keep the packet
	lengths confidential but not create an oracle for the packet payload
	cipher by decrypting and using the packet length prior to checking
	the MAC. By using an independently-keyed cipher instance to encrypt the
	length, an active attacker seeking to exploit the packet input handling
	as a decryption oracle can learn nothing about the payload contents or
	its MAC (assuming key derivation, ChaCha20 and Poly1305 are secure).

	The AEAD is constructed as follows: for each packet, generate a Poly1305
	key by taking the first 256 bits of ChaCha20 stream output generated
	using K_2, an IV consisting of the packet sequence number encoded as an
	uint64 under the SSH wire encoding rules and a ChaCha20 block counter of
	zero. The K_2 ChaCha20 block counter is then set to the little-endian
	encoding of 1 (i.e. {1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}) and this instance is used
	for encryption of the packet payload.

	Packet Handling
	---------------

	When receiving a packet, the length must be decrypted first. When 4
	bytes of ciphertext length have been received, they may be decrypted
	using the K_1 key, a nonce consisting of the packet sequence number
	encoded as a uint64 under the usual SSH wire encoding and a zero block
	counter to obtain the plaintext length.

	Once the entire packet has been received, the MAC MUST be checked
	before decryption. A per-packet Poly1305 key is generated as described
	above and the MAC tag calculated using Poly1305 with this key over the
	ciphertext of the packet length and the payload together. The calculated
	MAC is then compared in constant time with the one appended to the
	packet and the packet decrypted using ChaCha20 as described above (with
	K_2, the packet sequence number as nonce and a starting block counter of
	1).

	To send a packet, first encode the 4 byte length and encrypt it using
	K_1. Encrypt the packet payload (using K_2) and append it to the
	encrypted length. Finally, calculate a MAC tag and append it.

	Rekeying
	--------

	ChaCha20 must never reuse a {key, nonce} for encryption nor may it be
	used to encrypt more than 2^70 bytes under the same {key, nonce}. The
	SSH Transport protocol (RFC4253) recommends a far more conservative
	rekeying every 1GB of data sent or received. If this recommendation
	is followed, then chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com requires no special
	handling in this area.

	References
	----------

	[1] "ChaCha, a variant of Salsa20", Daniel Bernstein
	http://cr.yp.to/chacha/chacha-20080128.pdf

	[2] "The Poly1305-AES message-authentication code", Daniel Bernstein
	http://cr.yp.to/mac/poly1305-20050329.pdf

	[3] "ChaCha20 and Poly1305 based Cipher Suites for TLS", Adam Langley
	http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-agl-tls-chacha20poly1305-03

	$OpenBSD: PROTOCOL.chacha20poly1305,v 1.2 2013/12/02 02:50:27 djm Exp $