Cryptography tests

Cryptography tests verify the functionality of the nRF Security by using known test vectors approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and others.

Requirements

The tests support the following development kits:

Hardware platforms

PCA

Board name

Board target

nRF52840 DK

PCA10056

nrf52840dk

nrf52840dk/nrf52840

nRF5340 DK

PCA10095

nrf5340dk

nrf5340dk/nrf5340/cpuapp

nRF9151 DK

PCA10171

nrf9151dk

nrf9151dk/nrf9151

nRF9160 DK

PCA10090

nrf9160dk

nrf9160dk/nrf9160

nRF9161 DK

PCA10153

nrf9161dk

nrf9161dk/nrf9161

Note

Nordic Semiconductor devices for nRF51 Series, nRF52810, or nRF52811 cannot run the full test suite because of limited flash capacity. A recommended approach in such case is to run subsets of the tests one by one.

Overview

Cryptography tests use Zephyr Test Framework (Ztest) to run the tests. See Test Framework for details. The tests do not use the standard Ztest output but provide custom output for the test reports. See Ztest custom log formatting for details.

The tests are executed if the cryptographic functionality is enabled in Kconfig. Make sure to configure nRF Security and all available hardware or software backends to enable the tests. See CONFIG_NORDIC_SECURITY_BACKEND.

Cryptographic mode

Sub-mode

Link to standard

Test Vector Source

AES

CBC

NIST - AES

NIST - AES

CFB

NIST - AES

ECB

NIST - AES

CTR

NIST SP 800-38A

NIST SP 800-38A

CBC MAC

CBC MAC

No official test vectors

CMAC

NIST SP 800-38B

NIST SP 800-38B

AEAD

CCM

NIST - CCM

NIST - CCM

CCM*

Formal Specification of the CCM* Mode of Operation - September 9, 2005

Formal Specification of the CCM* Mode of Operation - September 9, 2005

EAX

The EAX Mode of Operation

The EAX Mode of Operation

GCM

NIST - GCM

NIST - GCM

ChaCha-Poly

RFC 7539 - ChaCha20 and Poly1305 for IETF Protocols

RFC 7539 - ChaCha20 and Poly1305 for IETF Protocols

ECDH

secp160r1

NIST - ECDH

GEC 2: Test Vectors for SEC 1

secp160r2

No test vectors

secp192r1

NIST - ECDH

secp224r1

NIST - ECDH

secp256r1

NIST - ECDH

secp384r1

NIST - ECDH

secp521r1

NIST - ECDH

secp160k1

No test vectors

secp192k1

No test vectors

secp224k1

No test vectors

secp256k1

No test vectors

bp256r1

RFC 7027 - ECC Brainpool Curves for TLS

RFC 7027 - ECC Brainpool Curves for TLS

bp384r1

RFC 7027 - ECC Brainpool Curves for TLS

bp512r1

RFC 7027 - ECC Brainpool Curves for TLS

Curve25519

RFC 7748 - Elliptic Curves for Security

RFC 7748 - Elliptic Curves for Security

ECDSA

secp160r1

NIST - ECDSA

No test vectors

secp160r2

No test vectors

secp192r1

No test vectors

secp224r1

NIST - ECDSA

secp256r1

NIST - ECDSA

secp384r1

NIST - ECDSA

secp521r1

NIST - ECDSA

secp160k1

No test vectors

secp192k1

No test vectors

secp224k1

No test vectors

secp256k1

No test vectors

bp256r1

RFC 5639 - ECC Brainpool Standard Curves and Curve Generation

No test vectors

bp384r1

No test vectors

bp512r1

No test vectors

EdDSA

RFC 8032 - Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)

RFC 8032 - Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)

Hash

SHA256

NIST - SHA

NIST - SHA

SHA512

NIST - SHA

HMAC

HMAC SHA256

NIST - HMAC

NIST - HMAC

HMAC SHA512

NIST - HMAC

HKDF

HKDF SHA256

RFC 5869 - HMAC-based Extract-and-Expand Key Derivation Function (HKDF)

RFC 5869 - HMAC-based Extract-and-Expand Key Derivation Function (HKDF)

HKDF SHA512

RFC 5869 - HMAC-based Extract-and-Expand Key Derivation Function (HKDF)

EC-JPAKE

secp256r1

J-PAKE: Password-Authenticated Key Exchange by Juggling

Custom

Building and running

This test can be found under tests/crypto/ in the nRF Connect SDK folder structure.

See Programming an application for information about how to build and program the tests.

There are multiple ways to build the tests. See nRF Security for additional information about configuring the nRF Security subsystem. You can use the following configuration files to build the test in a specific setup:

  • overlay-cc3xx.conf uses hardware acceleration using the Arm CryptoCell accelerator (for cryptography and entropy for random number generation).

  • overlay-oberon.conf uses only the Oberon software library for all cryptographic operations.

You can use one of the listed overlay configurations by adding the -- -DEXTRA_CONF_FILE=<overlay_config_file> flag to your build. Also see Providing CMake options for instructions on how to add this option.

Ztest custom log formatting

Cryptography tests replace the standard Ztest formatting to assure more efficient reporting of running tests and test results. Set the configuration option CONFIG_ZTEST_TC_UTIL_USER_OVERRIDE to replace the Ztest macros TC_START and Z_TC_END_RESULT with versions more suited for reporting results of cryptographic tests.

CONFIG_ZTEST_TC_UTIL_USER_OVERRIDE uses tests/crypto/include_override/tc_util_user_override.h to define the custom formatting.

Testing

  1. Compile and program the application.

  2. Connect the kit to the computer using a USB cable. The kit is assigned a COM port (Windows) or ttyACM device (Linux), which is visible in the Device Manager.

  3. Connect to the kit with a terminal emulator (for example, nRF Connect Serial Terminal). See Testing and optimization for the required settings and steps.

  4. Observe the result of the different test vectors in the terminal emulator log. The last line of the output indicates the test result:

    PROJECT EXECUTION SUCCESSFUL
    

Additional test cases and test vectors

You can add test cases and test vectors to the test suite either by including additional source files or by extending the existing files.

Test case

A test case is a function designed to verify parts of the functionality of a cryptographic operation. Most cryptographic operations, like hash calculations and ECDH, have multiple test cases to be able to cover all features. A typical test case is called by looping over the registered test vectors and calling the test case. The execution logs the verdict for each test vector.

Registering a test case

A new test case must be registered to the test_case_data section using ITEM_REGISTER, which registers it with the named section test_case_hmac_data:

ITEM_REGISTER(test_case_hmac_data, test_case_t test_hmac) = {
.p_test_case_name = "HMAC",
.setup = hmac_setup,
.exec = exec_test_case_hmac,
.teardown = hmac_teardown,
.vector_type = TV_HMAC,
.vectors_start = __start_test_vector_hmac_data,
.vectors_stop = __stop_test_vector_hmac_data,
};

Note

The macro call to ITEM_REGISTER must be done in a .c file.

Setting up a test case

As part of the test case setup, any previously used buffers are cleared. The next test vector is fetched using the ITEM_GET macro. The macro requires the following parameters:

  • test_vector_hmac_data - The section to fetch the test vector from (HMAC in this example).

  • test_vector_hmac_t - Information about which type of test vector to expect in the given section. In the example, test_vector_hmac_t is expected. It is the same type that is used when registering HMAC test vectors.

  • Information about which index to fetch a test vector from.

The fetched test vector is then unhexified.

Test vector data is stored as strings of hexadecimal characters. To use them, they must be parsed to binary, which is also done in the setup procedure.

The following example shows a test vector setup:

void hmac_setup(void)
{
   hmac_clear_buffers();
   p_test_vector = ITEM_GET(test_vector_hmac_data, test_vector_hmac_t,
                hmac_vector_n);
   unhexify_hmac();
}
void exec_test_case_hmac(void)
...

On teardown, the test vector index is incremented, so that the next call to hmac_setup by the Ztest framework fetches the next test vector:

void hmac_combined_teardown(void)
{
   hmac_combined_vector_n++;
}
Executing a test case

An example of an HMAC test case in a simplified form is shown below:

void exec_test_case_hmac(void)
{
int err_code = -1;

/* Initialize the HMAC module. */
mbedtls_md_init(&md_context);

const mbedtls_md_info_t *p_md_info =
        mbedtls_md_info_from_type(p_test_vector->digest_type);
err_code = mbedtls_md_setup(&md_context, p_md_info, 1);
if (err_code != 0) {
        LOG_WRN("mb setup ec: -0x%02X", -err_code);
}
TEST_VECTOR_ASSERT_EQUAL(err_code, 0);

start_time_measurement();
err_code = mbedtls_md_hmac_starts(&md_context, m_hmac_key_buf, key_len);
TEST_VECTOR_ASSERT_EQUAL(err_code, 0);

err_code =
        mbedtls_md_hmac_update(&md_context, m_hmac_input_buf, in_len);
TEST_VECTOR_ASSERT_EQUAL(err_code, 0);

/* Finalize the HMAC computation. */
err_code = mbedtls_md_hmac_finish(&md_context, m_hmac_output_buf);
stop_time_measurement();

TEST_VECTOR_ASSERT_EQUAL(p_test_vector->expected_err_code, err_code);

/* Verify the generated HMAC. */
TEST_VECTOR_ASSERT_EQUAL(expected_hmac_len, hmac_len);
TEST_VECTOR_MEMCMP_ASSERT(m_hmac_output_buf, m_hmac_expected_output_buf,
                          expected_hmac_len,
                          p_test_vector->expected_result,
                          "Incorrect hmac");

mbedtls_md_free(&md_context);
}

Test vectors

A test vector is a set of inputs and expected outputs to verify the functionality provided in a test case:

typedef const struct {
        const uint32_t digest_type;        /**< Digest type of HMAC operation. */
        const int expected_err_code;    /**< Expected error code from HMAC operation. */
        const uint8_t expected_result;  /**< Expected result of HMAC operation. */
        const char *p_test_vector_name; /**< Pointer to HMAC test vector name. */
        const char
                *p_input;                   /**< Pointer to input message in hex string format. */
        const char *p_key;              /**< Pointer to HMAC key in hex string format. */
        const char *p_expected_output;  /**< Pointer to expected HMAC digest in hex string format. */
} test_vector_hmac_t;

Registering a test vector

Test vectors are added by registering them for a section defined in the test case code. The test vector is registered in the section test_vector_hmac_data, which is defined in the test case example exec_test_case_hmac. The test vector can reuse the already defined hash test vector structure test_vector_hmac_t, as shown in the code block below:

/* HMAC - Custom test vector */
ITEM_REGISTER(test_vector_hmac_data,
              test_vector_hmac_t test_vector_hmac256_min_key_min_message_0) = {
        .digest_type = MBEDTLS_MD_SHA256,
        .expected_err_code = 0,
        .expected_result = EXPECTED_TO_PASS,
        .p_test_vector_name = TV_NAME("SHA256 key_len=1 message_len=1 zeros"),
        .p_input = "00",
        .p_key = "00",
        .p_expected_output =
                "6620b31f2924b8c01547745f41825d322336f83ebb13d723678789d554d8a3ef"
};

Output logging

The test project generates a test log using RTT or UART output. Executing exec_test_case_hmac with its registered test vectors adds the following output to the test log:

Running test suite HMAC
357: SHA256 key_len=131 message_len=152 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:259]
358: SHA256 key_len=131 message_len=54 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:240]
359: SHA256 key_len=25 message_len=50 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:225]
360: SHA256 key_len=20 message_len=50 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:210]
361: SHA256 key_len=4 message_len=28 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:197]
362: SHA256 key_len=20 message_len=8 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:184]
363: SHA256 key_len=74 message_len=128 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:164]
364: SHA256 key_len=64 message_len=128 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:145]
365: SHA256 key_len=45 message_len=128 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:127]
366: SHA256 key_len=40 message_len=128 -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:109]
367: SHA256 key_len=1 message_len=1 non-zeros -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:96]
368: SHA256 key_len=1 message_len=1 zeros -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:82]
369: SHA256 invalid - signature changed -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:64]
370: SHA256 invalid - key changed -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:46]
371: SHA256 invalid - message changed -- PASS -- [../test_cases/test_vectors_hmac.c:28]
Test suite HMAC succeeded