ECDH implementation in Python (part 3)

Question

After the first and second part, the primary feedback I got was to rename a lot of my variables as I used the same name for different local variables which is really confusing. I tried to hotfix that, as well as adding many comments to the new parts of my code. Notice that the code contains a lot of mathematic formulas which are not easy to understand; don't blame me for that since I didn't invent these formulas. If you don't understand what a specific code part does, please make sure if that's related rather to the code than to the math before you're forcing yourself to an answer which is as helpful as "The code is bad".

# coding: utf-8 MERSENNE_EXPONENTS = [ 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 61, 89, 107, 127, 521, 607, 1279, 2203, 2281, 3217, 4253, 4423 ] def ext_euclidean(a, b): """extended euclidean algorithm. returns gcd(a, b) as well as two numbers u and v, such that a*u + b*v = gcd(a, b) if gcd(a, b) is 1, u is the multiplicative inverse of a (mod b) """ t = u = 1 s = v = 0 while b: a, (q, b) = b, divmod(a, b) u, s = s, u - q*s v, t = t, v - q*s return a, u, v # a is now the greatest common divisor def legendre(x, p): """calculates the legendre symbol. p has to be an odd prime. returns 1 if x is a quadratic residue (mod p) returns -1 if x is quadratic non-residue (mod p) returns 0 if x = 0 (mod p) """ return pow(x, (p-1) // 2, p) def W(n, r, x, modulus): """Calculates recursive defined numbers which are needed to calculate the modular square root of x modulo modulus if modulus = 1 (mod 4) """ if n == 1: inv = ext_euclidean(x, modulus)[1] return (r*r*inv - 2) % modulus if n % 2 == 0: w0 = W((n-1) // 2, r, x, modulus) w1 = W((n+1) // 2, r, x, modulus) return (w0*w1 - W(1, r, x, modulus)) if n % 2 == 0: return (W(n // 2, r, x, modulus)**2 - 2) % modulus class Point: def __init__(self, x, y): self.x = x self.y = y def __str__(self): return '(' + str(self.x) + ', ' + str(self.y) + ')' def __eq__(self, P): if type(P) != type(self): return False return self.x == P.x and self.y == P.y class EllipticCurve: """Provides functions for calculations on finite elliptic curves. """ def __init__(self, a, b, modulus, warning=True): """Constructs the curve. a and b are parameters of the short Weierstraß equation: y^2 = x^3 + ax + b modulus is the order of the finite field, so the actual equation is y^2 = x^3 + ax + b (mod modulus) """ self.a = a self.b = b self.modulus = modulus if warning: if modulus % 4 == 3 and b == 0: raise Warning if modulus % 6 == 5 and a == 0: raise Warning def mod_sqrt(self, v): """Calculates the modular square root of a given value v. """ # check if there is a solution l = legendre(v, self.modulus) if l == (-1) % self.modulus: return None # no solution if l == 0: return 0 if l == 1: if self.modulus % 4 == 1: r = 0 while legendre(r*r - 4*v, self.modulus) != (-1) % self.modulus: r += 1 w1 = W((self.modulus-1) // 4, r, v, self.modulus) w3 = W((self.modulus+3) // 4, r, v, self.modulus) inv_r = ext_euclidean(r, self.modulus)[1] inv_2 = (self.modulus + 1) // 2 return (v * (w1 + w3) * inv_2 * inv_r) % self.modulus if self.modulus % 4 == 3: return pow(v, (self.modulus + 1) // 4, self.modulus) raise ValueError raise ValueError def generate(self, x): """generate Point with given x coordinate. """ x %= self.modulus v = (x**3 + self.a*x + self.b) % self.modulus # the curve equation y = self.mod_sqrt(v) if y is None: return None # no solution return Point(x, y) def add(self, P, Q): """point addition on this curve. None is the neutral element. """ if P is None: return Q if Q is None: return P numerator = (Q.y - P.y) % self.modulus denominator = (Q.x - P.x) % self.modulus if denominator == 0: if P == Q: # doubling the point if P.y == 0: return None inv = ext_euclidean(2 * P.y, self.modulus)[1] slope = inv * (3 * P.x**2 + self.a) % self.modulus else: return None else: # normal point addition inv = ext_euclidean(denominator, self.modulus)[1] slope = inv * numerator % self.modulus Rx = (slope**2 - (P.x + Q.x)) % self.modulus Ry = (slope * (P.x - Rx) - P.y) % self.modulus return Point(Rx, Ry) def mul(self, P, n): """binary multiplication. double and add instead of square and multiply. """ if P is None: return None if n < 0: P = Point(P.x, self.modulus - P.y) n = -n R = None for bit in bin(n)[2:]: R = self.add(R, R) if bit == '1': R = self.add(R, P) return R class MersenneCurve(EllipticCurve): """Elliptic curve where the curve order is a Mersenne prime. """ def __init__(self, a, b, exponent, warning=True): if exponent not in MERSENNE_EXPONENTS: raise ValueError if b == 0 and warning: raise Warning self.a = a self.b = b self.exponent = exponent self.modulus = 2**exponent - 1 

I'm currently working on a class for Montgomery curves which have a different curve equation.

Answer 1

Unreachable

The return line in the following code is unreachable in the W function:

if n % 2 == 0: return (W(n // 2, r, x, modulus)**2 - 2) % modulus 

This code follows code with the same if condition. When the 1st if condition is true, then function executes a return

The 2 lines of code above can be deleted. Or, if you think the lines were intended to be used, review the code.

Naming

Lower-case l is a bad name for a variable because it is easily confused with the number 1, not to mention that it conveys little meaning:

l = legendre(v, self.modulus) 

The function name W also conveys little meaning. The name should indicate something about what it does. For example, calc_w. If "w" has a special meaning in your equations, the docstring should explain its meaning.

Simpler

In the Point class __str__ function, this line:

return '(' + str(self.x) + ', ' + str(self.y) + ')' 

can be simplified with an f-string:

return f'({self.x}, {self.y})' 

Tools

You could run code development tools to automatically find some style issues with your code.

ruff has this to say:

Use `is` and `is not` for type comparisons, or `isinstance()` for isinstance checks def __eq__(self, P): if type(P) != type(self): ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ E721 

Answer 2

As of Python 3.8 (2019-10-14), the built-in function pow() supports a negative exponent with a modulus, so it can replace your ext_euclidean() function. Change every instance of ext_euclidean(a, b)[1] to pow(a, -1, b).