mbedtls/docs/driver-only-builds.md

This document explains how to create builds of Mbed TLS where some cryptographic mechanisms are provided only by PSA drivers (that is, no built-in implementation of those algorithms), from a user's perspective.

This is useful to save code size for people who are using either a hardware accelerator, or an alternative software implementation that is more aggressively optimized for code size than the default one in Mbed TLS.

General considerations

This document assumes that you already have a working driver. Otherwise, please see the PSA driver example and guide for information on writing a driver.

In order to have some mechanism provided only by a driver, you'll want the following compile-time configuration options enabled:

• MBEDTLS_PSA_CRYPTO_C (enabled by default) - this enables PSA Crypto.
• MBEDTLS_USE_PSA_CRYPTO (disabled by default) - this makes PK, X.509 and TLS use PSA Crypto. You need to enable this if you're using PK, X.509 or TLS and want them to have access to the algorithms provided by your driver. (See the dedicated document for details.)
• MBEDTLS_PSA_CRYPTO_CONFIG (disabled by default) - this enables configuration of cryptographic algorithms using PSA_WANT macros in include/psa/crypto_config.h. See Conditional inclusion of cryptographic mechanism through the PSA API in Mbed TLS for details.

In addition, for each mechanism you want provided only by your driver:

• Define the corresponding PSA_WANT macro in psa/crypto_config.h - this means the algorithm will be available in the PSA Crypto API.
• Define the corresponding MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL in your build. This could be defined in psa/crypto_config.h or your compiler's command line. This informs the PSA code that an accelerator is available for this mechanism.
• Undefine / comment out the corresponding MBEDTLS_xxx_C macro in mbedtls/mbedtls_config.h. This ensures the built-in implementation is not included in the build.

For example, if you want SHA-256 to be provided only by a driver, you'll want PSA_WANT_ALG_SHA_256 and MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_SHA_256 defined, and MBEDTLS_SHA256_C undefined.

In addition to these compile-time considerations, at runtime you'll need to make sure you call psa_crypto_init() before any function that uses the driver-only mechanisms. Note that this is already a requirement for any use of the PSA Crypto API, as well as for use of the PK, X.509 and TLS modules when MBEDTLS_USE_PSA_CRYPTO is enabled, so in most cases your application will already be doing this.

Mechanisms covered

For now, only the following (families of) mechanisms are supported:

• hashes: SHA-3, SHA-2, SHA-1, MD5, etc.
• elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC): ECDH, ECDSA, EC J-PAKE, ECC key types.
• finite-field Diffie-Hellman: FFDH algorithm, DH key types.
• AEADs: GCM, CCM and ChachaPoly

Supported means that when those are provided only by drivers, everything (including PK, X.509 and TLS if MBEDTLS_USE_PSA_CRYPTO is enabled) should work in the same way as if the mechanisms where built-in, except as documented in the "Limitations" sub-sections of the sections dedicated to each family below.

In the near future (end of 2023), we are planning to also add support for ciphers (AES, ARIA, Camellia).

Currently (mid-2023) we don't have plans to extend this to RSA. If you're interested in driver-only support for RSA, please let us know.

Hashes

It is possible to have all hash operations provided only by a driver.

More precisely:

• you can enable PSA_WANT_ALG_SHA_256 without MBEDTLS_SHA256_C, provided you have MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_ALG_SHA_256 enabled;
• and similarly for all supported hash algorithms: MD5, RIPEMD160, SHA_1, SHA_224, SHA_256, SHA_384, SHA_512, SHA3_224, SHA3_256, SHA3_384, SHA3_512.

In such a build, all crypto operations (via the PSA Crypto API, or non-PSA APIs), as well as X.509 and TLS, will work as usual, except that direct calls to low-level hash APIs (mbedtls_sha256() etc.) are not possible for the modules that are disabled.

You need to call psa_crypto_init() before any crypto operation that uses a hash algorithm that is provided only by a driver, as mentioned in General considerations above.

If you want to check at compile-time whether a certain hash algorithm is available in the present build of Mbed TLS, regardless of whether it's provided by a driver or built-in, you should use the following macros:

• for code that uses only the PSA Crypto API: PSA_WANT_ALG_xxx from psa/crypto.h;
• for code that uses non-PSA crypto APIs: MBEDTLS_MD_CAN_xxx from mbedtls/md.h.

Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC)

It is possible to have most ECC operations provided only by a driver:

• the ECDH, ECDSA and EC J-PAKE algorithms;
• key import, export, and random generation.

More precisely, if:

• you have driver support for ECC public and using private keys (that is, MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_KEY_TYPE_ECC_PUBLIC_KEY and MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_KEY_TYPE_ECC_KEY_PAIR_BASIC are enabled), and
• you have driver support for all ECC curves that are enabled (that is, for each PSA_WANT_ECC_xxx macro enabled, the corresponding MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_ECC_xxx macros is enabled as well);

then you can:

• enable PSA_WANT_ALG_ECDH without MBEDTLS_ECDH_C, provided MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_ALG_ECDH is enabled
• enable PSA_WANT_ALG_ECDSA without MBEDTLS_ECDSA_C, provided MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_ALG_ECDSA is enabled;
• enable PSA_WANT_ALG_JPAKE without MBEDTLS_ECJPAKE_C, provided MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_ALG_JPAKE is enabled.

In addition, if:

• none of MBEDTLS_ECDH_C, MBEDTLS_ECDSA_C, MBEDTLS_ECJPAKE_C are enabled (see conditions above), and
• you have driver support for all enabled ECC key pair operations - that is, for each PSA_WANT_KEY_TYPE_ECC_KEY_PAIR_xxx macro enabled, the corresponding MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_KEY_TYPE_ECC_KEY_PAIR_xxx macros is also enabled,

then you can also disable MBEDTLS_ECP_C. However, a small subset of it might still be included in the build, see limitations sub-section below.

In addition, if:

• MBEDTLS_ECP_C is fully removed (see limitation sub-section below), and
• support for RSA key types and algorithms is fully disabled, and
• support for DH key types and the FFDH algorithm is either disabled, or fully provided by a driver,

then you can also disable MBEDTLS_BIGNUM_C.

In such builds, all crypto operations via the PSA Crypto API will work as usual, as well as the PK, X.509 and TLS modules if MBEDTLS_USE_PSA_CRYPTO is enabled, with the following exceptions:

• direct calls to APIs from the disabled modules are not possible;
• PK, X.509 and TLS will not support restartable ECC operations (see limitation sub-section below).

If you want to check at compile-time whether a certain curve is available in the present build of Mbed TLS, regardless of whether ECC is provided by a driver or built-in, you should use the following macros:

• for code that uses only the PSA Crypto API: PSA_WANT_ECC_xxx from psa/crypto.h;
• for code that may also use non-PSA crypto APIs: MBEDTLS_ECP_HAVE_xxx from mbedtls/build_info.h where xxx can take the same values as for MBEDTLS_ECP_DP_xxx macros.

Note that for externally-provided drivers, the integrator is responsible for ensuring the appropriate MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_xxx macros are defined. However, for the p256-m driver that's provided with the library, those macros are automatically defined when enabling MBEDTLS_PSA_P256M_DRIVER_ENABLED.

Limitations regarding fully removing ecp.c

A limited subset of ecp.c will still be automatically re-enabled if any of the following is enabled:

• MBEDTLS_PK_PARSE_EC_COMPRESSED - support for parsing ECC keys where the public part is in compressed format;
• MBEDTLS_PK_PARSE_EC_EXTENDED - support for parsing ECC keys where the curve is identified not by name, but by explicit parameters;
• PSA_WANT_KEY_TYPE_ECC_KEY_PAIR_DERIVE - support for deterministic derivation of an ECC keypair with psa_key_derivation_output_key().

Note: when any of the above options is enabled, a subset of ecp.c will automatically be included in the build in order to support it. Therefore you can still disable MBEDTLS_ECP_C in mbedtls_config.h and this will result in some code size savings, but not as much as when none of the above features are enabled.

We do have plans to support each of these with ecp.c fully removed in the future, however there is no established timeline. If you're interested, please let us know, so we can take it into consideration in our planning.

Limitations regarding restartable / interruptible ECC operations

At the moment, there is no driver support for interruptible operations (see psa_sign_hash_start() + psa_sign_hash_complete() etc.) so as a consequence these are not supported in builds without MBEDTLS_ECDSA_C.

Similarly, there is no PSA support for interruptible ECDH operations so these are not supported without ECDH_C. See also limitations regarding restartable operations with MBEDTLS_USE_PSA_CRYPTO in its documentation.

Again, we have plans to support this in the future but not with an established timeline, please let us know if you're interested.

Limitations regarding "mixed" builds (driver and built-in)

In order for a build to be driver-only (no built-in implementation), all the requested algorithms, key types (key operations) and curves must be accelerated (plus a few other restrictions, see "Limitations regarding fully removing ecp.c" above). However, what if you have an accelerator that only supports some algorithms, some key types (key operations), or some curves, but want to have more enabled in you build?

It is possible to have acceleration for only a subset of the requested algorithms. In this case, the built-in implementation of the accelerated algorithms will be disabled, provided all the requested curves and key types that can be used with this algorithm are also declared as accelerated.

There is very limited support for having acceleration for only a subset of the requested key type operations. The only configuration that's tested is that of a driver accelerating PUBLIC_KEY, KEY_PAIR_BASIC, KEY_PAIR_IMPORT, KEY_PAIR_EXPORT but not KEY_PAIR_GENERATE. (Note: currently the driver interface does not support KEY_PAIR_DERIVE.)

There is limited support for having acceleration for only a subset of the requested curves. In such builds, only the PSA API is currently tested and working; there are known issues in PK, and X.509 and TLS are untested.

Finite-field Diffie-Hellman

Support is pretty similar to the "Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC)" section above. Key management and usage can be enabled by means of the usual PSA_WANT + MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL pairs:

• [PSA_WANT|MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL]_KEY_TYPE_DH_PUBLIC_KEY;
• [PSA_WANT|MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL]_KEY_TYPE_DH_KEY_PAIR_BASIC;
• [PSA_WANT|MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL]_KEY_TYPE_DH_KEY_PAIR_IMPORT;
• [PSA_WANT|MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL]_KEY_TYPE_DH_KEY_PAIR_EXPORT;
• [PSA_WANT|MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL]_KEY_TYPE_DH_KEY_PAIR_GENERATE;

The same holds for the associated algorithm: [PSA_WANT|MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL]_ALG_FFDH allow builds accelerating FFDH and removing builtin support (i.e. MBEDTLS_DHM_C).

Limitations

Support for deterministic derivation of a DH keypair (i.e. PSA_WANT_KEY_TYPE_RSA_KEY_PAIR_DERIVE) is not supported.

AEADs

[This section might contain incomplete data and it is going to be updated in #8358, i.e. the wrap-up task for accelerated ciphers and AEADs.]

It is possible to have all AEADs operations provided only by a driver.

More precisely you can:

• enable desired PSA algorithm(s) and key type(s):
  • PSA_WANT_ALG_[CCM|GCM] with PSA_WANT_KEY_TYPE_[AES|ARIA|CAMELLIA]
  • PSA_WANT_ALG_CHACHA20_POLY1305 with PSA_WANT_KEY_TYPE_CHACHA20;
• enable MBEDTLS_PSA_ACCEL_xxx symbol(s) which correspond to the PSA_WANT_xxx of the previous step (both for algorithms and key types);
• disable builtin support of MBEDTLS_[CCM|GCM|CHACHAPOLY|POLY1305]_C algorithms and key types MBEDTLS_[AES|ARIA|CAMELLIA|CHACHA20]_C for AEADs which are accelerated.

In a build in which all AEADs algorithms and related key types are accelerated all AEADs operations requested through the PSA Crypto API (including those in TLS and X.509) will be performed by the driver. Moreover if no unauthenticated cipher is required, it is also possible to disable all built-in block cipher's key types (i.e. MBEDTLS_[AES|ARIA|CAMELLIA|CHACHA20]_C) and MBEDTLS_CIPHER_C. This helps in further reducing code's footprint, but unfortunately it makes the following modules unavailable:

• MBEDTLS_PKCS[5|12]_C
• MBEDTLS_CTR_DRBG_C
• MBEDTLS_NIST_KW_C