This library adopts The Bouncy Castle Cryptography Library For .NET to wan24-Crypto and extends the wan24-Crypto library with these algorithms:

Main goals of this extension library are to make wan24-Crypto usable on all platforms and extend its algorithms by PQC algorithms and other non-PQC algorithms, which are not available from .NET, but implemented in the Bouncy Castle library.

This library is available as NuGet package.

In case you don't use the wan24-Core bootstrapper logic, you need to initialize the Bouncy Castle extension first, before you can use it:

wan24.Crypto.BC.Bootstrap.Boot();

This will register the algorithms to the wan24-Crypto library.

Some algorithms of the wan24-Crypto library are not available on some platforms, that's why they need to be replaced in order to be used:

To replace all of them:

BouncyCastle.ReplaceNetAlgorithms();

NOTE: The Shake128/256 replacements don't support variable output length and use the default output length of the wan24-Crypto implementations instead. The NetShake128/256HashAlgorithmAdapter can't be replaced for this reason.

In order to override the .NET default SHA3 hash and HMAC algorithms, you can call:

BouncyCastle.RegisterNetAlgorithms();

This will use Bouncy Castle SHA3 implementations for the .NET implemented SHA3 hash algorithms:

This step is required, if you want to ensure that whenever a .NET crypto type or any 3rd party crypto type requests a SHA3 hash or HMAC instance using the static HashAlgorithm.Create("NAME") or KeyedHashAlgorithm.Create("NAME") methods.

To set Bouncy Castle defaults as wan24-Crypto defaults:

BouncyCastle.SetDefaults();

Per default the current wan24-Crypto default will be set as counter algorithms to HybridAlgorithmHelper.

Current Bouncy Castle default algorithms are:

These asymmetric algorithms are designed for post quantum cryptography:

• CRYSTALS-Kyber (key exchange)
• CRYSTALS-Dilithium (signature)
• FALCON (signature)
• SPHINCS+ (signature)
• FrodoKEM (key exchange)
• NTRUEncrypt (key exchange)
• Streamlined NTRU Prime (key exchange)
• BIKE (key exchange)
• HQC (key exchange)
• Picnic (signature)

Normally you want to use them in hybrid mode and use classical algorithms of the wan24-Crypto package as counter algorithm. To do this per default:

// Enable the post quantum algorithms as (counter-)defaults
CryptoHelper.ForcePostQuantumSafety();

This will use these algorithms as (counter) algorithms for asymmetric cryptography, in case you didn't define other post quantum algorithms already:

• NTRUEncrypt (key exchange)
• CRYSTALS-Dilithium (signature)

The counter algorithm will come in effect, if you use asymmetric keys for encryption:

// Create options having a counter private key
CryptoOptions options = EncryptionHelper.GetDefaultOptions();
options.SetCounterPrivateKey(yourNtruPrivateKey);

// Encrypt using the options and your normal private key
byte[] cipherData = rawData.Encrypt(yourNormalPrivateKey, options);
rawData = cipherData.Decrypt(yourNormalPrivateKey, options);

And for signature:

// Create options having a counter private key
CryptoOptions options = AsymmetricHelper.GetDefaultSignatureOptions();
options.SetCounterPrivateKey(yourDilithiumPrivateKey);

// Sign using the options and your normal private key
SignatureContainer signature = dataToSign.Sign(yourNormalPrivateKey, options: options);

NOTE: CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium AES parameters and SPHINCS+ robust parameters are deprecated! SPHINCS+ Haraka parameters are removed from the FIPS standard, so wan24-Crypto-BC will switch to Shake parameters instead. Also the FrodoKEM Shake parameters will be used in the next major release, which will require to renew existing keys, which use the AES parameters from the current version of this library.

WARNING The PQC standards are in development at the moment, so future incompatible changes are very likely and will be handled in a new major release of this library.

The RandomDataProvider is a RandomDataGenerator which provides added seed data to OnSeed(Async) attached event handlers. It uses the ChaCha20Rng in combination with RND of wan24-Crypto to produce cryptographic secure random data (CSRNG). An instance may be set as RND.Generator singleton random data generator for all consumers (like key generators etc.).

RandomDataProvider can be customized by extending the type. Pregnant methods are virtual and can be overridden. Since the type is a HostedServiceBase, it can be used in modern .NET app environments. And since it implements the IRandomGenerator interface of Bouncy Castle, it can be used as secure random data source for all Bouncy Castle algorithms (like key generators) also.

By calling the CreateFork(Async) method, you can create an attached instance, which will be initialized with a random seed generated by the parent instance and consumes the provided seeds from the parent automatically.

NOTE: Don't forget to dispose an unused RandomDataProvider instance!

CAUTION: There is a patent (US10402172B1) which comes into play, if you plan to create a Random or Entropy as a Service (R/EaaS) application, especially when using QRNG entropy. Read that document carefully to avoid disappointments.

The StreamCipherRng uses any stream cipher to encrypt the generated random bytes of an underlaying PRNG using a random key. The result is a CSRNG. These stream ciphers are available with wan24-Crypto-BC, but you could use any other stream cipher (but not AEAD implementations!) also:

If you didn't specify an underlaying PRNG, Bouncy Castle's VmpcRandomGenerator will be used and seeded using 256 bytes from RND.

The final CSRNG implements IRandomGenerator for use with Bouncy Castle, and also ISeedableRng for use with RND (as seed consumer, for example).

NOTE: A StreamCipherRng needs to be disposed after use!

You can use the resulting CSRNG as default RNG for RND:

ChaCha20Rng csrng = new();

// Enable automatic seeding
RND.SeedConsumer = csrng;

// Use as default CSRNG
RND.FillBytes = csrng.GetBytes;
RND.FillBytesAsync = csrng.GetBytesAsync;

NOTE: When setting the RND.FillBytes(Async) callbacks, they may not be used, if /dev/random was preferred. To disable /dev/random, set RND.UseDevRandom and RND.RequireDevRandom to false also.

NOTE: Currently only stream ciphers are supported, because the cipher RNG implementation doesn't buffer pre-generated random data.

Just a short note on Curve448: Private and public keys have a different key size: The private key has 456 bit, while the public key has 448 bit. Both key sizes are supported for key generation and result in the same key sizes for the private (456 bit) and the public (448 bit) key. The private key of a key pair will always identify with 456 bit, while the public key will always identify with 448 bit - no matter which key size was chosen for key pair generation.

The Ed448 signature is context based, but currently only an empty byte array is being used as context data. Instead of a context you should use the purpose free text, which can be given to the signature methods of wan24-Crypto.

XEd25519 and XEd448 convert the private Ed25519/448 key to X25519/448 for key exchange. The private key stores only the Ed25519/448 information, while the public key stores both, the Ed25519/448 and the X25519/448 informations (and therefor require a custom serialization format). You can derive Ed25519/448 private keys from a XEd25519/448 private key, and XEd25519/448 private keys from a Ed25519/448 private key.

Using the ToX25519/448PrivateKey extension methods for the Ed25519/448PrivateKeyParameters a conversion to X25519/448 is possible now (if you want to use the Bouncy Castle API directly).

WARNING: Different Ed25519/448 keys may convert to equal X25519/448 keys, so be aware of possible collisions!