Skip to content

README.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
50 lines (35 loc) · 1.95 KB

README.md

File metadata and controls

50 lines (35 loc) · 1.95 KB
Raw

Multi-Level Build (C Backend)

This directory contains a minimal example for building mldsa-native with support for all three security levels (ML-DSA-44, ML-DSA-65, ML-DSA-87), with level-independent code shared to reduce binary size.

Use Case

Use this approach when:

  • You need multiple ML-DSA security levels in the same application
  • You want to minimize code duplication across levels
  • You want to build the mldsa-native C files separately, not as a single compilation unit.
  • You're only using C (no native backends)

Components

  1. mldsa-native source tree: mldsa/src/ and mldsa/src/fips202/
  2. A secure random number generator implementing randombytes.h
  3. Your application source code

Configuration

The library is built 3 times into separate directories (build/mldsa44, build/mldsa65, build/mldsa87).

The configuration file mldsa_native_config.h sets:

  • MLD_CONFIG_MULTILEVEL_BUILD: Enables multi-level build mode
  • MLD_CONFIG_NAMESPACE_PREFIX=mldsa: Base prefix; level suffix added automatically

Build-time flags passed via CFLAGS:

  • MLD_CONFIG_PARAMETER_SET=44/65/87: Selects the security level
  • MLD_CONFIG_MULTILEVEL_WITH_SHARED: Set for ONE build (e.g., 44) to include shared code
  • MLD_CONFIG_MULTILEVEL_NO_SHARED: Set for OTHER builds to exclude shared code

The resulting API functions are namespaced as:

  • mldsa44_keypair(), mldsa44_signature(), mldsa44_verify(), ...
  • mldsa65_keypair(), mldsa65_signature(), mldsa65_verify(), ...
  • mldsa87_keypair(), mldsa87_signature(), mldsa87_verify(), ...

Usage

make build   # Build all three security levels
make run     # Run the example

Warning

The randombytes() implementation in test_only_rng/ is for TESTING ONLY. You MUST provide a cryptographically secure RNG for production use.