In TLS, order curves by resource usage, not size
TLS used to prefer larger curves, under the idea that a larger curve has a
higher security strength and is therefore harder to attack. However, brute
force attacks are not a practical concern, so this was not particularly
meaningful. If a curve is considered secure enough to be allowed, then we
might as well use it.
So order curves by resource usage. The exact definition of what this means
is purposefully left open. It may include criteria such as performance and
memory usage. Risk of side channels could be a factor as well, although it
didn't affect the current choice.
The current list happens to exactly correspond to the numbers reported by
one run of the benchmark program for "full handshake/s" on my machine.
Signed-off-by: Gilles Peskine <Gilles.Peskine@arm.com>
diff --git a/include/mbedtls/ssl.h b/include/mbedtls/ssl.h
index df3974a..d885d21 100644
--- a/include/mbedtls/ssl.h
+++ b/include/mbedtls/ssl.h
@@ -2916,8 +2916,7 @@
* \note The default list is the same set of curves that
* #mbedtls_x509_crt_profile_default allows, plus
* ECDHE-only curves selected according to the same criteria.
- * Larger (generally more secure but slower) curves are
- * preferred over smaller curves.
+ * The order favors curves with the lowest resource usage.
*
* \param conf SSL configuration
* \param curves Ordered list of allowed curves,