bip340: Add subsection on Domain Separation

1 files changed, 20 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/bip-0340.mediawiki b/bip-0340.mediawiki
index 3b61c57..c941916 100644
--- a/bip-0340.mediawiki
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@@ -237,6 +237,26 @@ In particular, the signing algorithm needs two sequential hashing passes over th
 which means that the full message must necessarily be kept in memory during signing,
 and large messages entail a runtime penalty.<ref>Typically, messages of 56 bytes or longer enjoy a performance benefit from pre-hashing, assuming the speed of SHA256 inside the signing algorithm matches that of the pre-hashing done by the calling application.</ref>
 
+==== Domain Separation ====
+
+It is good cryptographic practice to use a key pair only for a single purpose.
+Nevertheless, there may be situations in which it may be desirable to use the same key pair in multiple contexts,
+i.e., to sign different types of messages within the same application
+or even messages in entirely different applications
+(e.g., a secret key may be used to sign Bitcoin transactions as well plain text messages).
+
+As a consequence, applications should ensure that a signed application message intended for one context is never deemed valid in a different context
+(e.g., a signed plain text message should never be misinterpreted as a signed Bitcoin transaction, because this could cause unintended loss of funds).
+This is called "domain separation" and it is typically realized by partitioning the message space.
+Even if key pairs are intended to be used only within a single context,
+domain separation is a good idea because it makes it easy to add more contexts later.
+
+As a best practice, we recommend applications to use exactly one of the following methods to pre-process application messages before passing it to the signature scheme:
+* Either, pre-hash the application message using ''hash<sub>name</sub>'', where ''name'' identifies the context uniquely (e.g., "foo-app/signed-bar"),
+* or prefix the actual message with a 33-byte string that identifies the context uniquely (e.g., the UTF-8 encoding of "foo-app/signed-bar", padded with null bytes to 33 bytes).
+
+As the two pre-processing methods yield different message sizes (32 bytes vs. at least 33 bytes), there is no risk of collision between them.
+
 == Applications ==
 
 There are several interesting applications beyond simple signatures.