1 ===========================
2 SipHash - a short input PRF
3 ===========================
4
5 :Author: Written by Jason A. Donenfeld <jason@zx2c4.com>
6
7 SipHash is a cryptographically secure PRF -- a keyed hash function -- that
8 performs very well for short inputs, hence the name. It was designed by
9 cryptographers Daniel J. Bernstein and Jean-Philippe Aumasson. It is intended
10 as a replacement for some uses of: `jhash`, `md5_transform`, `sha1_transform`,
11 and so forth.
12
13 SipHash takes a secret key filled with randomly generated numbers and either
14 an input buffer or several input integers. It spits out an integer that is
15 indistinguishable from random. You may then use that integer as part of secure
16 sequence numbers, secure cookies, or mask it off for use in a hash table.
17
18 Generating a key
19 ================
20
21 Keys should always be generated from a cryptographically secure source of
22 random numbers, either using get_random_bytes or get_random_once::
23
24 siphash_key_t key;
25 get_random_bytes(&key, sizeof(key));
26
27 If you're not deriving your key from here, you're doing it wrong.
28
29 Using the functions
30 ===================
31
32 There are two variants of the function, one that takes a list of integers, and
33 one that takes a buffer::
34
35 u64 siphash(const void *data, size_t len, const siphash_key_t *key);
36
37 And::
38
39 u64 siphash_1u64(u64, const siphash_key_t *key);
40 u64 siphash_2u64(u64, u64, const siphash_key_t *key);
41 u64 siphash_3u64(u64, u64, u64, const siphash_key_t *key);
42 u64 siphash_4u64(u64, u64, u64, u64, const siphash_key_t *key);
43 u64 siphash_1u32(u32, const siphash_key_t *key);
44 u64 siphash_2u32(u32, u32, const siphash_key_t *key);
45 u64 siphash_3u32(u32, u32, u32, const siphash_key_t *key);
46 u64 siphash_4u32(u32, u32, u32, u32, const siphash_key_t *key);
47
48 If you pass the generic siphash function something of a constant length, it
49 will constant fold at compile-time and automatically choose one of the
50 optimized functions.
51
52 Hashtable key function usage::
53
54 struct some_hashtable {
55 DECLARE_HASHTABLE(hashtable, 8);
56 siphash_key_t key;
57 };
58
59 void init_hashtable(struct some_hashtable *table)
60 {
61 get_random_bytes(&table->key, sizeof(table->key));
62 }
63
64 static inline hlist_head *some_hashtable_bucket(struct some_hashtable *table, struct interesting_input *input)
65 {
66 return &table->hashtable[siphash(input, sizeof(*input), &table->key) & (HASH_SIZE(table->hashtable) - 1)];
67 }
68
69 You may then iterate like usual over the returned hash bucket.
70
71 Security
72 ========
73
74 SipHash has a very high security margin, with its 128-bit key. So long as the
75 key is kept secret, it is impossible for an attacker to guess the outputs of
76 the function, even if being able to observe many outputs, since 2^128 outputs
77 is significant.
78
79 Linux implements the "2-4" variant of SipHash.
80
81 Struct-passing Pitfalls
82 =======================
83
84 Often times the XuY functions will not be large enough, and instead you'll
85 want to pass a pre-filled struct to siphash. When doing this, it's important
86 to always ensure the struct has no padding holes. The easiest way to do this
87 is to simply arrange the members of the struct in descending order of size,
88 and to use offsetofend() instead of sizeof() for getting the size. For
89 performance reasons, if possible, it's probably a good thing to align the
90 struct to the right boundary. Here's an example::
91
92 const struct {
93 struct in6_addr saddr;
94 u32 counter;
95 u16 dport;
96 } __aligned(SIPHASH_ALIGNMENT) combined = {
97 .saddr = *(struct in6_addr *)saddr,
98 .counter = counter,
99 .dport = dport
100 };
101 u64 h = siphash(&combined, offsetofend(typeof(combined), dport), &secret);
102
103 Resources
104 =========
105
106 Read the SipHash paper if you're interested in learning more:
107 https://131002.net/siphash/siphash.pdf
108
109 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
110
111 ===============================================
112 HalfSipHash - SipHash's insecure younger cousin
113 ===============================================
114
115 :Author: Written by Jason A. Donenfeld <jason@zx2c4.com>
116
117 On the off-chance that SipHash is not fast enough for your needs, you might be
118 able to justify using HalfSipHash, a terrifying but potentially useful
119 possibility. HalfSipHash cuts SipHash's rounds down from "2-4" to "1-3" and,
120 even scarier, uses an easily brute-forcable 64-bit key (with a 32-bit output)
121 instead of SipHash's 128-bit key. However, this may appeal to some
122 high-performance `jhash` users.
123
124 HalfSipHash support is provided through the "hsiphash" family of functions.
125
126 .. warning::
127 Do not ever use the hsiphash functions except for as a hashtable key
128 function, and only then when you can be absolutely certain that the outputs
129 will never be transmitted out of the kernel. This is only remotely useful
130 over `jhash` as a means of mitigating hashtable flooding denial of service
131 attacks.
132
133 On 64-bit kernels, the hsiphash functions actually implement SipHash-1-3, a
134 reduced-round variant of SipHash, instead of HalfSipHash-1-3. This is because in
135 64-bit code, SipHash-1-3 is no slower than HalfSipHash-1-3, and can be faster.
136 Note, this does *not* mean that in 64-bit kernels the hsiphash functions are the
137 same as the siphash ones, or that they are secure; the hsiphash functions still
138 use a less secure reduced-round algorithm and truncate their outputs to 32
139 bits.
140
141 Generating a hsiphash key
142 =========================
143
144 Keys should always be generated from a cryptographically secure source of
145 random numbers, either using get_random_bytes or get_random_once::
146
147 hsiphash_key_t key;
148 get_random_bytes(&key, sizeof(key));
149
150 If you're not deriving your key from here, you're doing it wrong.
151
152 Using the hsiphash functions
153 ============================
154
155 There are two variants of the function, one that takes a list of integers, and
156 one that takes a buffer::
157
158 u32 hsiphash(const void *data, size_t len, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
159
160 And::
161
162 u32 hsiphash_1u32(u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
163 u32 hsiphash_2u32(u32, u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
164 u32 hsiphash_3u32(u32, u32, u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
165 u32 hsiphash_4u32(u32, u32, u32, u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
166
167 If you pass the generic hsiphash function something of a constant length, it
168 will constant fold at compile-time and automatically choose one of the
169 optimized functions.
170
171 Hashtable key function usage
172 ============================
173
174 ::
175
176 struct some_hashtable {
177 DECLARE_HASHTABLE(hashtable, 8);
178 hsiphash_key_t key;
179 };
180
181 void init_hashtable(struct some_hashtable *table)
182 {
183 get_random_bytes(&table->key, sizeof(table->key));
184 }
185
186 static inline hlist_head *some_hashtable_bucket(struct some_hashtable *table, struct interesting_input *input)
187 {
188 return &table->hashtable[hsiphash(input, sizeof(*input), &table->key) & (HASH_SIZE(table->hashtable) - 1)];
189 }
190
191 You may then iterate like usual over the returned hash bucket.
192
193 Performance
194 ===========
195
196 hsiphash() is roughly 3 times slower than jhash(). For many replacements, this
197 will not be a problem, as the hashtable lookup isn't the bottleneck. And in
198 general, this is probably a good sacrifice to make for the security and DoS
199 resistance of hsiphash().
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