Only create signatures with even S, and verification mode to check.

To fix a minor malleability found by Sergio Lerner (reported here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8392.msg1245898#msg1245898)

The problem is that if (R,S) is a valid ECDSA signature for a given
message and public key, (R,-S) is also valid. Modulo N (the order
of the secp256k1 curve), this means that both (R,S) and (R,N-S) are
valid. Given that N is odd, S and N-S have a different lowest bit.
We solve the problem by forcing signatures to have an even S value,
excluding one of the alternatives.

This commit just changes the signing code to always produce even S
values, and adds a verification mode to check it. This code is not
enabled anywhere yet. Existing tests in key_tests.cpp verify that
the produced signatures are still valid.

1 files changed, 18 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/src/key.cpp b/src/key.cpp
index 1ab4c62ebf..2247c99475 100644
--- a/src/key.cpp
+++ b/src/key.cpp
@@ -194,9 +194,26 @@ public:
     }
 
     bool Sign(const uint256 &hash, std::vector<unsigned char>& vchSig) {
+        vchSig.clear();
+        ECDSA_SIG *sig = ECDSA_do_sign((unsigned char*)&hash, sizeof(hash), pkey);
+        if (sig == NULL)
+            return false;
+        if (BN_is_odd(sig->s)) {
+            // enforce even S values, by negating the value (modulo the order) if odd
+            BN_CTX *ctx = BN_CTX_new();
+            BN_CTX_start(ctx);
+            const EC_GROUP *group = EC_KEY_get0_group(pkey);
+            BIGNUM *order = BN_CTX_get(ctx);
+            EC_GROUP_get_order(group, order, ctx);
+            BN_sub(sig->s, order, sig->s);
+            BN_CTX_end(ctx);
+            BN_CTX_free(ctx);
+        }
         unsigned int nSize = ECDSA_size(pkey);
         vchSig.resize(nSize); // Make sure it is big enough
-        assert(ECDSA_sign(0, (unsigned char*)&hash, sizeof(hash), &vchSig[0], &nSize, pkey));
+        unsigned char *pos = &vchSig[0];
+        nSize = i2d_ECDSA_SIG(sig, &pos);
+        ECDSA_SIG_free(sig);
         vchSig.resize(nSize); // Shrink to fit actual size
         return true;
     }