# TRUSTED-COMPUTING-BASE --- Magnetar implementation TCB

> **v1.0 framing.** This document is a v0.x archival snapshot. The
> v1.0 TCB for the per-validator standalone primitive is
> `cloudflare/circl/sign/slhdsa` v1.6.3. The v1.0 TCB for THBS-SE
> additionally includes the public combiner's transient memory at
> the precise sub-second sign moment (see
> `DEPLOYMENT-RUNBOOK.md` sec 2.1).

> **What you must trust to rely on Magnetar's byte-equality
> correctness claim.** Companion to `PROOF-CLAIMS.md` (proof scope)
> and `DEPLOYMENT-RUNBOOK.md` (operator-facing trust-model
> disclosure).
>
> **HONESTY NOTE**: Magnetar's TCB is structurally simpler than
> Pulsar's because Magnetar ships NO mechanized refinement layer for
> the **threshold overlay** (no EasyCrypt theories specific to the
> overlay, no Lean ↔ EC bridges specific to the overlay, no Jasmin
> sources for the overlay). The FIPS 205 SLH-DSA single-party layer
> DOES have upstream formal artifacts available (libjade's SLH-DSA
> work) but Magnetar does not redistribute or re-verify them in this
> submission. That removes the overlay-specific proof-tool TCB but
> increases the trust placed in (i) the Go reference implementation
> review of the threshold overlay, (ii) KAT determinism, and (iii)
> the byte-equality test harness against the
> `cloudflare/circl` FIPS 205 verifier. See `PROOF-CLAIMS.md` for
> the honest framing.

## §0 Layered trust bases

The Magnetar byte-equality claim rests on three layered trust bases:

1. **The FIPS 205 SLH-DSA standard** — NIST FIPS 205 (2024). The
   single-party signing primitive's security analysis is NIST's; the
   Magnetar submission inherits it.
2. **The Go reference implementation** — `ref/go/pkg/magnetar/`
   (~2200 LOC) plus `cloudflare/circl/sign/slhdsa` (the FIPS 205
   single-party reference). Reviewed by code inspection + KAT replay
   + the `TestN1_ByteEquality_*` empirical byte-equality harness.
3. **The trusted-computing base (TCB) below the implementation** —
   this document.

If any element of the TCB is unsound, the implementation's
correctness is unsound regardless of how clean the code review was.

## §1 Implementation TCBs

### §1.1 Reference implementation (Go)

| Component | Trust | Mitigations |
|---|---|---|
| Magnetar Go reference (this repository) | Go standard-library correctness, `crypto/rand` randomness quality, transcript-hash primitives in `transcript.go` (cSHAKE256 / KMAC256), byte-wise Shamir / Lagrange in `thbsse_field.go`, THBS-SE protocol in `thbsse.go`, Combine emit in `thbsse_assemble.go` + the FIPS 205 walk in `slhdsa_internal.go`, per-validator standalone in `standalone.go`, dealerless DKG in `pvss_dkg.go` | Reviewed by code inspection; KAT replay (`vectors/*.json` regenerated byte-stably); byte-identity tests vs single-party FIPS 205. (The v0.x files `shamir.go`, `dkg.go`, `threshold.go`, `combine.go` were DELETED.) |
| `github.com/cloudflare/circl/sign/slhdsa` | Cloudflare's audited Go reference implementation of FIPS 205 SLH-DSA. Used for: scheme-seed derivation (`Scheme.DeriveKey`), `SignDeterministic`, `Verify`. | Version pinned in `go.mod`. circl is the canonical mainstream Go FIPS 205 implementation; community-audited at Cloudflare scale. |
| `golang.org/x/crypto/sha3` | cSHAKE256, KMAC256, TupleHash256 primitives (Go-stdlib-style). | Version pinned in `go.mod`. |
| `crypto/subtle` | Constant-time byte-blob compare. Standard library. (Note: Magnetar uses local `ctEqualSlice` / `ctEqual32` constant-time helpers in `transcript.go` rather than `crypto/subtle.ConstantTimeCompare` for direct legibility; the algorithm is identical: scan every byte with `diff |= a[i] ^ b[i]`, return `diff == 0`.) | Standard library; bundled with the Go toolchain. |

### §1.2 Production targets (out of scope for v0.3.0)

| Target | Status |
|---|---|
| Optimized Rust crate | TODO — not in this submission |
| C library + FFI | TODO — not in this submission |
| WASM build | TODO |
| no_std embedded | TODO |
| C++ port | TODO — a future cross-runtime byte-equality harness (matching Pulsar's `luxcpp/crypto/pulsar/` and Corona's `luxcpp/crypto/corona/`) is a possible Tier A → Tier A++ evidence enhancement |

For each future target, an independent constant-time audit + KAT
cross-validation + binding-level fuzzing is required before
considering it "production." The byte-equality claim does NOT
automatically transfer to these targets — each target's correctness
must be re-verified.

## §2 Build TCBs

| Layer | What you trust | Reproducibility |
|---|---|---|
| **Go toolchain** | The Go compiler used to build the reference. The `go.mod` directive pins the language version. | Hard-pinned in `go.mod`; `go.sum` enforces module checksums. |
| **`scripts/cut-submission.sh`** | The cut orchestrator's correctness — that it produces deterministic outputs from a fresh checkout. | Mirrors Pulsar's pattern; runs build → tests → KAT-regen verification → tar. |
| **`scripts/check-high-assurance.sh`** | The high-assurance gate's correctness — `go build` + `go vet` + secret-log smoke scan. Skips proof-tool checks since Magnetar ships none for the overlay layer. | Honest about what's checked and what's not; documented in the script header. |
| **`ref/go/cmd/genkat`** | Deterministic regeneration of KAT vectors. | The genkat tool consumes fixed seeds and produces byte-stable JSON output; re-running on a clean checkout produces byte-identical files. |

## §3 What the TCB does NOT include

Magnetar's TCB is **structurally simpler** than Pulsar's because
Magnetar ships no mechanized refinement layer for the threshold
overlay. The following are NOT in the Magnetar TCB:

- **EasyCrypt prover** (Pulsar trusts it; Magnetar has no EC
  theories for the overlay layer)
- **Lean 4 + Mathlib** (Pulsar uses Lean-bridged algebraic axioms
  for Shamir / Lagrange identities; Magnetar has none of its own —
  closure plan is cross-citation to Pulsar's bridges, since the
  underlying GF(257) algebra is identical)
- **Jasmin verified compiler** (Pulsar's threshold layer is in
  Jasmin; Magnetar's is pure Go)
- **OCaml runtime** (EC is OCaml; Magnetar has no EC)
- **jasmin-ct** (Magnetar's CT evidence is local-helper
  `ctEqualSlice` / `ctEqual32` review + the
  `cloudflare/circl` upstream constant-time claims for the FIPS 205
  single-party layer; statistical CT measurement is roadmap)

What IS in the Magnetar TCB but NOT in Pulsar's:

- **Greater dependence on the Go reference review of the threshold
  overlay.** Pulsar can fall back to the EC refinement chain if a
  Go reviewer misses a bug in the threshold layer; Magnetar's only
  line of defense for the overlay is reviewer + KAT determinism +
  the `TestN1_ByteEquality_*` harness against single-party FIPS 205.
- **Greater dependence on `cloudflare/circl`'s FIPS 205
  implementation.** Pulsar's spec target (FIPS 204) is implemented
  both by `cloudflare/circl` AND independently by BoringSSL FIPS /
  AWS-LC / OpenSSL 3.0 (interop targets exist). Magnetar's spec
  target (FIPS 205) is at a less mature interop point — circl is
  the canonical Go implementation, but the mainstream third-party
  FIPS 205 implementations (BoringSSL, OpenSSL) are still landing
  at submission time.

## §4 What the TCB does NOT cover

These are explicitly NOT part of the trust base for Magnetar's
byte-equality correctness claim:

- **Specific operating system** (Linux, macOS, BSD, Windows) — the
  Go reference is OS-independent.
- **Specific CPU architecture** — Go compiles to amd64/arm64; both
  exercised in development.
- **Network protocol stack** — Magnetar's transport is out of scope.
- **Storage layer** — how `KeyShare` material is stored at rest is
  out of scope. Production deployments use HSM-backed share material
  or TEE-attested host configurations; see `DEPLOYMENT-RUNBOOK.md`.
- **Key management policies** — key lifecycle is application-level
  (governed by the consuming consensus layer, e.g. Quasar Polaris
  profile).
- **Application code calling Magnetar** — Magnetar's API contract
  is the trust boundary.

## §5 TCB risks and mitigations

### §5.1 Construction-soundness risk

| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| FIPS 205 SLH-DSA has a latent cryptanalytic flaw | NIST FIPS 205 (2024) is the published standard with extensive cryptanalytic review. Lux tracks cryptanalysis literature; any flaw would prompt NIST guidance, which Magnetar would inherit. The fundamental hardness assumption (collision/preimage resistance of SHAKE) is conservative. |
| The Magnetar threshold lifecycle additions (byte-wise Shamir VSS, DKG, two-round commit-bind sign) have a latent bug | Per-protocol tests in `ref/go/pkg/magnetar/dkg_test.go`, `threshold_test.go`, `kat_test.go`, `n1_byte_equality_test.go`. Independent third-party audit is roadmap item, see `BLOCKERS.md` BLK-9. The byte-equality property to single-party FIPS 205 is the load-bearing N1 invariant; any threshold-layer bug that broke it would manifest in `TestN1_ByteEquality_*` failure. |

### §5.2 Implementation-correctness risk

| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Go reference implementation diverges from the construction | `TestN1_ByteEquality_*` runs end-to-end DKG → threshold-sign → Combine and asserts byte-equality with `slhdsa.SignDeterministic(KeyFromSeed(reconstructed_seed), msg, ctx)`. Divergence = test failure. |
| KAT vectors are subtly wrong | Deterministic generation from fixed seeds via `ref/go/cmd/genkat`. The KAT replay test (`kat_test.go`) validates that the package implementation reproduces every KAT entry verbatim. |
| `cloudflare/circl/sign/slhdsa` has a bug in FIPS 205 implementation | circl is the canonical mainstream Go FIPS 205 implementation; community-audited at Cloudflare scale. A circl bug would also affect any other Go consumer of FIPS 205. Closure: cross-implementation verifier harness against a non-Go FIPS 205 implementation (e.g., pq-crystals reference C, BoringSSL when SLH-DSA lands) is roadmap, see `BLOCKERS.md` BLK-6. |
| Hash-suite implementation bug (cSHAKE256 / KMAC256) | `golang.org/x/crypto/sha3` is a widely-used standard library implementation; bugs are rare and quickly patched. The Magnetar Shamir / Lagrange / mix operations route every call through `transcript.go` so any drift is a single-file change. |

### §5.3 Build / reproducibility risk

| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| `scripts/cut-submission.sh` produces non-deterministic output | The build is deterministic from fixed seeds; reproducible-build property is checked at every cut. The KAT regen step explicitly compares regenerated vectors against committed copies. |
| Toolchain version drift between commits | `go.mod` pin + `go.sum` enforcement. |
| KAT drift across runs | `ref/go/cmd/genkat` consumes only fixed seeds and committed config; output is byte-stable. The cut script diffs regenerated KATs against committed copies and fails on any divergence. |

### §5.4 Side-channel risk

| Risk | Mitigation |
|---|---|
| Timing leakage on secret-dependent paths in the threshold overlay | Constant-time helpers (`ctEqualSlice`, `ctEqual32`) are used for every commit verification and public-key equality check. Secret-dependent branches absent from `verify.go`, `sign.go`, and the Combine commit-verify gate. **Statistical validation via dudect is NOT yet in place** — roadmap item, see `PROOF-CLAIMS.md` §3.4. |
| Timing leakage in the single-party FIPS 205 layer | `cloudflare/circl/sign/slhdsa` documents constant-time properties per FIPS 205 §6.3 guidance; libjade has SLH-DSA formal CT artifacts for the broader ecosystem. Magnetar does not redistribute these but inherits the upstream guarantees. |
| Memory-access / cache-timing leakage | Not addressed at the software level. Production deployments should use TEE attestation (SGX, SEV-SNP, TDX) per `DEPLOYMENT-RUNBOOK.md` §1 ("v0.1 reveal-and-aggregate trust caveat"). |
| Secret-buffer lifetime / coredump risk | The THBS-SE Combine path (`thbsse_assemble.go`) zeroizes the reconstructed-master buffers (`derivedExpandInput`, `derivedMaterial`) and the PRF scratch (`prfAbsorb`, `prfMsgAbsorb`) after use. This is defense-in-depth: the full FIPS 205 master IS resident in the public combiner's memory during one Sign call (the permissionless THBS-SE path is research-grade, not no-leak — see `ASSEMBLE-INVARIANT.md` and `BLOCKERS.md`). For no-resident-seed deployments use the per-validator standalone path or the TEE pool. |

## §6 Independent verification protocol

To independently verify Magnetar's claims, a reviewer should:

1. Clone the repo at the submission tag.
2. `GOWORK=off go build ./...` — expect clean build.
3. `GOWORK=off go test -count=1 -short -timeout 240s ./ref/go/pkg/magnetar/` — expect all tests passing, including `TestN1_ByteEquality_*` across (3,2), (5,3), (7,4).
4. Backup `vectors/`, run `GOWORK=off go run ./ref/go/cmd/genkat -out=vectors/`, then `diff -qr vectors_backup/ vectors/` — expect zero differences (KAT determinism).
5. Read the Go reference implementation:
   - `params.go`, `types.go` — public types + FIPS 205 parameter sets
   - `keygen.go`, `sign.go`, `verify.go` — single-party FIPS 205 dispatch
   - `standalone.go` — per-validator standalone (PRIMARY production path)
   - `thbsse_field.go` — byte-wise Shamir over GF(257)
   - `transcript.go` — cSHAKE256 / KMAC256 / SP 800-185 helpers
   - `pvss_dkg.go` — dealerless DKG (RunDKG production + open-reveal test)
   - `thbsse.go`, `thbsse_assemble.go`, `slhdsa_internal.go` — THBS-SE
     threshold sign + the master-reconstructing Combine emit
     (research-grade; see `ASSEMBLE-INVARIANT.md`)
   - `zeroize.go` — secret-buffer wipes
   (The v0.x files `shamir.go`, `dkg.go`, `threshold.go`, `combine.go`
   were DELETED; ignore any doc that still references them.)
6. Cross-reference with FIPS 205 (NIST 2024) §10.1 (parameter sets),
   §10.2 (Sign), §10.3 (Verify).
7. Cross-reference with `SPEC.md` §3 (DKG), §4 (threshold sign),
   §6 (byte-equality claim), §7 (trust model).

If all 7 steps pass, the trust base reduces to the TCB enumerated
in this document.

## §7 What this means for downstream consumers

For a downstream consumer (e.g., a Quasar consensus chain
incorporating Magnetar as the hash-based PQ leg of the Polaris
profile):

- **The byte-equality claim is conditional on the TCB.** If you
  change the Go toolchain, port to a different runtime, or modify
  the hash suite, the claim's transferable guarantees attenuate.
- **For FIPS 140-3 module validation**, Magnetar's path is via
  the FIPS 205 SLH-DSA standard (NIST). The single-party FIPS 205
  layer in `cloudflare/circl` is independently validatable when
  FIPS 205 modules ship; the threshold overlay is not subject to
  FIPS 140-3 directly (there is no NIST standard for threshold
  SLH-DSA).
- **For NIST MPTC review**, Magnetar's role is the algorithm-level
  reference + production lifecycle artifacts; module packaging +
  external audit are downstream.
- **For threshold signing in a Quasar Polaris deployment**, Magnetar
  is the hash-based PQ kernel; the consuming consensus layer is
  responsible for the chain-of-custody and validator-rotation
  orchestration. The Magnetar reshare protocol (v0.4 roadmap)
  will provide the Class N4-analog primitive when it lands.

## §8 Honest comparison to Pulsar's and Corona's TCBs

| TCB element | Pulsar | Magnetar | Corona |
|---|---|---|---|
| EasyCrypt prover | YES (foundation of refinement proof, 13 files, 0/0 admits) | NO (no EC theories for the overlay layer) | NO |
| Lean 4 + Mathlib | YES (5 Lean-bridged axioms) | NO (cross-citation closure on roadmap; Shamir/Lagrange algebraically identical to Pulsar's GF(257)) | NO |
| Jasmin verified compiler | YES (threshold layer in Jasmin) | NO (pure Go; libjade covers SLH-DSA single-party but is not redistributed here) | NO (pure Go) |
| OCaml runtime | YES (EC is OCaml) | NO | NO |
| Go toolchain | YES (Go reference) | YES (Go reference; primary) | YES (Go reference) |
| `cloudflare/circl` FIPS 205 | NO (Pulsar uses FIPS 204) | YES (FIPS 205 single-party kernel) | NO (R-LWE; no FIPS standard) |
| `luxfi/lattice/v7` (lattigo fork) | NO | NO | YES (R-LWE primitives) |
| `crypto/subtle` (or local CT helpers) | YES | YES (local `ctEqualSlice` / `ctEqual32`) | YES |
| `golang.org/x/crypto/sha3` | YES | YES | YES |
| NIST standard target | FIPS 204 ML-DSA | FIPS 205 SLH-DSA | none (Boschini ePrint 2024/1113) |
| Third-party FIPS-validated verifier available | YES (BoringSSL FIPS / AWS-LC / OpenSSL 3.0 ML-DSA) | PARTIAL (FIPS 205 still landing in third-party stacks at submission time) | NO (none exists for R-LWE threshold) |

**Net effect**: Magnetar's TCB is smaller than Pulsar's (fewer
proof-tool dependencies) but the trust per-component is higher
(no fall-back to a mechanized refinement chain if a Go reviewer
misses a bug in the threshold overlay). Compared to Corona, Magnetar
has a STRONGER baseline because the single-party layer is FIPS-anchored
(FIPS 205) while Corona's underlying construction is a 2024 academic
paper with less cryptanalytic surface area.

---

**Document metadata**

- Name: `TRUSTED-COMPUTING-BASE.md`
- Version: v0.1 (initial Tier A submission-package scaffolding)
- Date: 2026-05-18
- Go toolchain pin: see `go.mod`
- `cloudflare/circl` pin: see `go.mod`
- `golang.org/x/crypto` pin: see `go.mod`