Re: [RFC] Libsodium - Discussion

On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 1:26 PM, Fleshgrinder <php@fleshgrinder.com> wrote: > On 6/1/2016 12:48 PM, Marco Pivetta wrote: > > > I also agree with Remi on naming: let's avoid calling the extension > > libsodium. > > > > I agree here too. > > On 6/1/2016 12:48 PM, Marco Pivetta wrote: > > 1. is there a particular reason why abbreviations are used? For > instance, > > why sodium_randombytes_buf() instead of > > sodium_random_bytes_buffer()? > > 2. from a naming perspective, I'd expect > > sodium_randombytes_buf() to > > give me a buffer of random bytes (probably as a stream), but it returns > the > > actual string of random bytes. Again: confusing naming > > 3. can we avoid using "themed" naming? For example, instead of > > sodium_crypto_secretbox(), it would be best to express > > what it actually > > does, like sodium_encrypt_and_sign(). While the naming may > > be emerging > > from lower layers, I still (like I did with other RFCs) disagree with > > inheriting confusing naming. This will just cause users to look up the > > naming up when reading or writing code, and ultimately add up to silly > > bugs. I can already foresee that people will use the API incorrectly just > > because of the naming. > > > > I agree here too but read on. > > On 6/1/2016 12:48 PM, Marco Pivetta wrote: > > 4. can't we just keep it namespaced under Sodium, > > instead of adding > more > > stuff to the root level namespace? Does anyone have a reference to the > > coding standards that would cause the rename? > > > > I was the person who brought this up because it is not desired according > to the existing CODING STANDARD: > > https://github.com/php/php-src/blob/master/CODING_STANDARDS > > Note that it also encourages this weird C style naming with > abbreviations, hence, I would be open for discussing it. That being > said, I am not a friend of putting procedural functions into namespaces > and prefer the establish prefix approach. > > That being said, I see many opportunities here to create very nice > classes that enable dependency injection, single validation, and of > course I am +1000 for namespaces here. It would also help a lot to get > some of those extremely weird names out of the window. > > namespace Sodium; > > interface SodiumException extends \Throwable {} > > class SignatureException > extends \UnexpectedValueException > implements SodiumException {} > > class DetachedSignature { > > public function __construct(string $detached_signature); > > public function __toString(): string; > > public function verify(string $message, PublicKey $public): bool; > > } > > class SignedMessage { > > public function __construct(string $signed_message); > > public function __toString(): string; > > public function getSignature(): DetachedSignature; > > } > > interface Key { > > } > > class PrivateKey implements Key { > > public function sign(string $message): SignedMessage; > > } > > class PublicKey implements Key { > > public function verify(SignedMessage $message): bool; > > } > > class KeyPair { > > public function __construct(PrivateKey $private, PublicKey $public); > > public static function generate(): KeyPair; > > public function getPrivate(): PrivateKey; > > public function getPublic(): PublicKey; > > } > > This is of course an attempt of writing up some classes after looking at > the API for literally 5 minutes but I think it illustrated the > potential. It is also going to increase the security by a huge margin > because a private key suddenly has to be an instance of a PrivateKey and > not some arbitrary string that needs to be revalidated all the time. > > The same software design principles apply as always and the current API > might be nice for C but it is definitely not for PHP in my opinion. > > Of course I offer my help to find and define such an API if you guys are > interested in creating one. :) > > -- > Richard "Fleshgrinder" Fussenegger > > ​Well, for what it's worth, I did write https://github.com/paragonie/halite ​ as a high-level abstraction. The goal of this RFC is to get the lower-level functionality (which is still, I promise, a high-level cryptography API) available.​ Scott Arciszewski Chief Development Officer Paragon Initiative Enterprises <https://paragonie.com/>​