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[tls] Centralise pseudorandom data generation#1740

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[tls] Centralise pseudorandom data generation#1740
mcb30 wants to merge 2 commits into
ipxe:masterfrom
mcb30:tlssched

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@mcb30 mcb30 commented Jun 19, 2026

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TLS version 1.3 has a formal key schedule based on HKDF, and requires the client to be able to recall ephemeral secrets at multiple points within the connection lifecycle. For example: the ephemeral private key for X25519 key exchange may be required when constructing ClientHello (for a TLS version 1.3 key share) or when constructing ClientKeyExchange (if subsequently falling back to use TLS version 1.2), and again when parsing a ServerHello key share or a ServerKeyExchange.

Some ephemeral private keys may be large (e.g. for ffdhe4096). Avoid the need to store these large (and variably sized) private keys by instead instantiating a standalone HKDF instance that we seed with per-connection random data and subsequently use to generate ephemeral private keys on demand.

We use the key exchange algorithm name (e.g. "x25519") as additional information to ensure separation between keys used for different purposes. Since the initial random seed is generated afresh for each connection, and since there can meaningfully be only one ephemeral private key per key exchange algorithm per connection, this is sufficient to ensure separation.

Having instantiated this HKDF, we then also use it to generate the client random bytes (with the label "client random"), to generate the random portion of the pre-master secret for classic RSA key exchange (with the label "classic pre-master"), and to generate the random portion of record IVs (using the authentication header structure, which is already guaranteed to be unique per record within a connection). Doing this allows us to eliminate all other calls to the RNG, and removes some potential failure paths.

We reset the HKDF on a connection restart and on connection close, to preserve the property of forward secrecy.

@mcb30 mcb30 force-pushed the tlssched branch 2 times, most recently from f2ed777 to f61f5f5 Compare June 20, 2026 08:53
mcb30 added 2 commits June 20, 2026 10:04
Calling hkdf_extract() with no salt and with the input keying material
provided in the same buffer that will hold the output pseudorandom key
is a valid potential use case.  This will currently fail silently
since the input keying material would be overwritten by the
constructed all-zero salt before being consumed.

Fix by using a local buffer for the all-zero salt, rather than
constructing the salt in the output buffer.

Signed-off-by: Michael Brown <mcb30@ipxe.org>
TLS version 1.3 has a formal key schedule based on HKDF, and requires
the client to be able to recall ephemeral secrets at multiple points
within the connection lifecycle.  For example: the ephemeral private
key for X25519 key exchange may be required when constructing
ClientHello (for a TLS version 1.3 key share) or when constructing
ClientKeyExchange (if subsequently falling back to use TLS version
1.2), and again when parsing a ServerHello key share or a
ServerKeyExchange.

Some ephemeral private keys may be large (e.g. for ffdhe4096).  Avoid
the need to store these large (and variably sized) private keys by
instead instantiating a standalone HKDF instance that we seed with
per-connection random data and subsequently use to generate ephemeral
private keys on demand.

We use the key exchange algorithm name (e.g. "x25519") as additional
information to ensure separation between keys used for different
purposes.  Since the initial random seed is generated afresh for each
connection, and since there can meaningfully be only one ephemeral
private key per key exchange algorithm per connection, this is
sufficient to ensure separation.

Having instantiated this HKDF, we then also use it to generate the
client random bytes (with the label "client random"), to generate the
random portion of the pre-master secret for classic RSA key exchange
(with the label "classic pre-master"), and to generate the random
portion of record IVs (using the authentication header structure,
which is already guaranteed to be unique per record within a
connection).  Doing this allows us to eliminate all other calls to the
RNG, and removes some potential failure paths.

We reset the HKDF on a connection restart and on connection close, to
preserve the property of forward secrecy.

Signed-off-by: Michael Brown <mcb30@ipxe.org>
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