Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA and ECDSA)¶
DSA and ECDSA are U.S. federal standards for digital signatures, specified in FIPS PUB 186-4.
Their security relies on the discrete logarithm problem in a prime finite field (the original DSA, now deprecated) or in an elliptic curve field (ECDSA, faster and with smaller keys, to be used in new applications).
A sender can use a private key (loaded from a file) to sign a message:
>>> from Crypto.Hash import SHA256
>>> from Crypto.PublicKey import ECC
>>> from Crypto.Signature import DSS
>>>
>>> message = b'I give my permission to order #4355'
>>> key = ECC.import_key(open('privkey.der').read())
>>> h = SHA256.new(message)
>>> signer = DSS.new(key, 'fips-186-3')
>>> signature = signer.sign(h)
The receiver can use the matching public key to verify authenticity of the received message:
>>> from Crypto.Hash import SHA256
>>> from Crypto.PublicKey import ECC
>>> from Crypto.Signature import DSS
>>>
>>> key = ECC.import_key(open('pubkey.der').read())
>>> h = SHA256.new(received_message)
>>> verifier = DSS.new(key, 'fips-186-3')
>>> try:
>>> verifier.verify(h, signature)
>>> print "The message is authentic."
>>> except ValueError:
>>> print "The message is not authentic."
-
class
Crypto.Signature.DSS.
DssSigScheme
(key, encoding, order)¶ A (EC)DSA signature object. Do not instantiate directly. Use
Crypto.Signature.DSS.new()
.-
can_sign
()¶ Return
True
if this signature object can be used for signing messages.
-
sign
(msg_hash)¶ Compute the DSA/ECDSA signature of a message.
Parameters: msg_hash (hash object) – The hash that was carried out over the message. The object belongs to the
Crypto.Hash
package. Under mode'fips-186-3'
, the hash must be a FIPS approved secure hash (SHA-2 or SHA-3).Returns: The signature as
bytes
Raises: - ValueError – if the hash algorithm is incompatible to the (EC)DSA key
- TypeError – if the (EC)DSA key has no private half
-
verify
(msg_hash, signature)¶ Check if a certain (EC)DSA signature is authentic.
Parameters: - msg_hash (hash object) – The hash that was carried out over the message.
This is an object belonging to the
Crypto.Hash
module. Under mode'fips-186-3'
, the hash must be a FIPS approved secure hash (SHA-2 or SHA-3). - signature (
bytes
) – The signature that needs to be validated.
Raises: ValueError – if the signature is not authentic
- msg_hash (hash object) – The hash that was carried out over the message.
This is an object belonging to the
-
-
Crypto.Signature.DSS.
new
(key, mode, encoding='binary', randfunc=None)¶ Create a signature object
DssSigScheme
that can perform (EC)DSA signature or verification.Note
Refer to NIST SP 800 Part 1 Rev 4 (or newer release) for an overview of the recommended key lengths.
Parameters: - key (
Crypto.PublicKey.DSA
orCrypto.PublicKey.ECC
) –The key to use for computing the signature (private keys only) or for verifying one. For DSA keys, let
L
andN
be the bit lengths of the modulusp
and ofq
: the pair(L,N)
must appear in the following list, in compliance to section 4.2 of FIPS 186-4:- (1024, 160) legacy only; do not create new signatures with this
- (2048, 224) deprecated; do not create new signatures with this
- (2048, 256)
- (3072, 256)
For ECC, only keys over P-224, P-256, P-384, and P-521 are accepted.
- mode (string) –
The parameter can take these values:
'fips-186-3'
. The signature generation is randomized and carried out according to FIPS 186-3: the noncek
is taken from the RNG.'deterministic-rfc6979'
. The signature generation is not randomized. See RFC6979.
- encoding (string) –
How the signature is encoded. This value determines the output of
sign()
and the input toverify()
.The following values are accepted:
'binary'
(default), the signature is the raw concatenation ofr
ands
. It is defined in the IEEE P.1363 standard. For DSA, the size in bytes of the signature isN/4
bytes (e.g. 64 forN=256
). For ECDSA, the signature is always twice the length of a point coordinate (e.g. 64 bytes for P-256).'der'
, the signature is a ASN.1 DER SEQUENCE with two INTEGERs (r
ands
). It is defined in RFC3279. The size of the signature is variable.
- randfunc (callable) – A function that returns random
bytes
, of a given length. If omitted, the internal RNG is used. Only applicable for the ‘fips-186-3’ mode.
- key (