mbedtls_mpi_exp_mod: remove spurious copy of the output variable
Clear some confusion between `X` as the output variable and "X" as a name
given to the accumulator. Previous iterations of the code used the variable
`X` as the accumulator, but now that the accumulator is `W[x_index]`, some
of the comments didn't make sense.
Remove the copy of the initial value of `X` into `W[x_index]`, which was
meaningless: the initial value of an output variable should not, and did
not, matter. `W[x_index]` is later overridden unconditionally to take the
value `RR`.
Signed-off-by: Gilles Peskine <Gilles.Peskine@arm.com>
diff --git a/library/bignum.c b/library/bignum.c
index f2a8641..798d758 100644
--- a/library/bignum.c
+++ b/library/bignum.c
@@ -1680,8 +1680,9 @@
* and squarings. Firstly, when multiplying by an element of the window
* W[i], we do a constant-trace table lookup to obfuscate i. This leaves
* squarings as having a different memory access patterns from other
- * multiplications. So secondly, we put the accumulator X in the table as
- * well, and also do a constant-trace table lookup to multiply by X.
+ * multiplications. So secondly, we put the accumulator in the table as
+ * well, and also do a constant-trace table lookup to multiply by the
+ * accumulator which is W[x_index].
*
* This way, all multiplications take the form of a lookup-and-multiply.
* The number of lookup-and-multiply operations inside each iteration of
@@ -1694,19 +1695,16 @@
* observe both memory accesses and branches. However, branch prediction
* exploitation typically requires many traces of execution over the same
* data, which is defeated by randomized blinding.
- *
- * To achieve this, we make a copy of X and we use the table entry in each
- * calculation from this point on.
*/
const size_t x_index = 0;
mbedtls_mpi_init(&W[x_index]);
- mbedtls_mpi_copy(&W[x_index], X);
j = N->n + 1;
- /* All W[i] and X must have at least N->n limbs for the mpi_montmul()
- * and mpi_montred() calls later. Here we ensure that W[1] and X are
- * large enough, and later we'll grow other W[i] to the same length.
- * They must not be shrunk midway through this function!
+ /* All W[i] including the accumulator must have at least N->n limbs for
+ * the mpi_montmul() and mpi_montred() calls later. Here we ensure that
+ * W[1] and the accumulator W[x_index] are large enough. later we'll grow
+ * other W[i] to the same length. They must not be shrunk midway through
+ * this function!
*/
MBEDTLS_MPI_CHK(mbedtls_mpi_grow(&W[x_index], j));
MBEDTLS_MPI_CHK(mbedtls_mpi_grow(&W[1], j));