Sui’s Fastcrypto Library Sets New Speed Records in Cryptography

Sui’s
Fastcrypto
cryptography
library
has
achieved
significant
milestones
by
setting
new
speed
records,
according
to
a
recent
paper
presented
at
the
International
Conference
on
Performance
Engineering
(ICPE)
2024
in
London.
The
paper,
titled

Fastcrypto:
Pioneering
Cryptography
Via
Continuous
Benchmarking,
highlights
the
library’s
superior
performance
through
systematic
and
continuous
benchmarking.

Benchmarking
and
Performance

The
Fastcrypto
library,
integral
to
the
Sui
blockchain,
has
undergone
rigorous
benchmarking
and
security
analysis,
leading
to
the
identification
and
resolution
of
several
security
vulnerabilities.
The
continuous
testing
approach
has
also
enabled
the
discovery
of
optimization
techniques
that
have
further
enhanced
the
library’s
performance.

The
benchmarking
results,
which
are
continuously
updated
and
made
publicly
available,
have
facilitated
more
informed
decision-making
in
the
development
of
Fastcrypto
and
Sui.
This
systematic
approach
has
influenced
choices
regarding
dependencies,
usage,
and
the
allocation
of
developer
resources.

Conference
Highlights

At
the
ICPE
2024
conference,
the
presentation
on
Fastcrypto
was
part
of
a
session
titled
“Innovations
in
Performance
Testing:
Strategies
and
Technologies.”
The
event
attracted
participants
from
both
academia
and
industry,
including
representatives
from
MongoDB
and
Amazon.

The
presentation
underscored
the
importance
of
benchmarking
cryptographic
functions
such
as
digital
signatures,
hash
functions,
and
zero-knowledge
proofs.
It
also
discussed
the
continuous
benchmarking
of
these
functions
upon
release
and
on-demand,
with
results
published
online
for
easy
comparison
and
historical
performance
tracking.

Case
Study:
Signature
Schemes

A
notable
case
study
from
the
paper
focused
on
selecting
a
signature
scheme
for
validators
in
the
Sui
blockchain.
To
submit
a
transaction,
a
user
must
obtain
signatures
from
a
quorum
of
validators.
With
approximately
100
validators,
a
quorum
consists
of
67
validators,
each
needing
to
verify
67
signatures
per
transaction.

The
study
compared
the
BLS
and
EdDSA
signature
schemes,
revealing
that
the
BLS
scheme,
despite
its
slower
individual
signature
verification,
is
more
efficient
for
Sui’s
needs.
The
break-even
point
between
the
two
schemes
was
identified
as
40
to
45
signatures,
making
BLS
the
preferred
choice
for
the
Sui
blockchain.

Security
Insights

The
presentation
also
highlighted
how
benchmarking
can
uncover
unexpected
software
behaviors.
For
instance,
some
libraries
implementing
the
EdDSA
signature
scheme
exhibited
unusually
fast
performance
by
assuming
the
public
key
should
be
cached
and
provided
as
input.
This
assumption
could
lead
to
vulnerabilities,
such
as
the
extraction
of
the
private
key
if
an
incorrect
public
key
is
provided.

This
issue
was
detected
through
benchmarking,
which
showed
that
while
faster
performance
is
often
desirable,
unexpected
speed
increases
can
indicate
potential
security
flaws.
This
insight
emphasizes
the
importance
of
thorough
benchmarking
in
ensuring
the
security
and
reliability
of
cryptographic
libraries.

For
more
detailed
information,
visit
the
original
source
on

The
Sui
Blog.

Image
source:
Shutterstock