@noble/secp256k1

What is @noble/secp256k1?

@noble/secp256k1 is a JavaScript library for elliptic curve cryptography, specifically for the secp256k1 curve. It is commonly used in blockchain and cryptocurrency applications for key generation, signing, and verification.

What are @noble/secp256k1's main functionalities?

Key Generation

This feature allows you to generate a random private key and derive the corresponding public key using the secp256k1 curve.

const secp = require('@noble/secp256k1');
const privateKey = secp.utils.randomPrivateKey();
const publicKey = secp.getPublicKey(privateKey);
console.log('Private Key:', privateKey);
console.log('Public Key:', publicKey);

Signing

This feature allows you to sign a message using a private key. The message is an array of bytes, and the signature is generated using the secp256k1 curve.

const secp = require('@noble/secp256k1');
const message = new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]);
const privateKey = secp.utils.randomPrivateKey();
const signature = secp.sign(message, privateKey);
console.log('Signature:', signature);

Verification

This feature allows you to verify a signature using the corresponding public key and the original message. It returns a boolean indicating whether the signature is valid.

const secp = require('@noble/secp256k1');
const message = new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]);
const privateKey = secp.utils.randomPrivateKey();
const publicKey = secp.getPublicKey(privateKey);
const signature = secp.sign(message, privateKey);
const isValid = secp.verify(signature, message, publicKey);
console.log('Is the signature valid?', isValid);

Other packages similar to @noble/secp256k1

elliptic

Elliptic is a widely-used JavaScript library for elliptic curve cryptography. It supports multiple curves, including secp256k1. Compared to @noble/secp256k1, elliptic is more versatile but may be less optimized for performance in secp256k1-specific use cases.

secp256k1

Secp256k1 is a native Node.js binding to the secp256k1 library used in Bitcoin. It is highly optimized for performance but requires native compilation, which can be a drawback for some users. @noble/secp256k1, being a pure JavaScript implementation, is easier to use in browser environments.

bitcoinjs-lib

BitcoinJS is a library for Bitcoin-related operations, including key generation, signing, and verification using secp256k1. While it offers a broader range of Bitcoin-specific functionalities, it is less focused on general elliptic curve cryptography compared to @noble/secp256k1.

README

noble-secp256k1

Fastest 5KB JS implementation of secp256k1 signatures & ECDH.

• ✍️ ECDSA signatures compliant with RFC6979
• ➰ Schnorr signatures compliant with BIP340
• 🤝 Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman ECDH
• 🔒 Supports hedged signatures guarding against fault attacks
• 🪶 4.94KB (gzipped, elliptic.js is 10x larger, tiny-secp256k1 is 25x larger)

The module is a sister project of noble-curves, focusing on smaller attack surface & better auditability. Curves are drop-in replacement and have more features: MSM, DER encoding, endomorphism, prehashing, custom point precomputes, hash-to-curve, oprf. To upgrade from earlier version, see Upgrading.

898-byte version of the library is available for learning purposes in test/misc/1kb.min.js, it was created for the article Learning fast elliptic-curve cryptography.

This library belongs to noble cryptography

noble-cryptography — high-security, easily auditable set of contained cryptographic libraries and tools.

• Zero or minimal dependencies
• Highly readable TypeScript / JS code
• PGP-signed releases and transparent NPM builds with provenance
• Check out homepage & all libraries: ciphers, curves, hashes, post-quantum, 5kb secp256k1 / ed25519

Usage

npm install @noble/secp256k1

deno add jsr:@noble/secp256k1

We support all major platforms and runtimes. For React Native, additional polyfills are needed: see below.

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';
(async () => {
  const { secretKey, publicKey } = secp.keygen();
  // const publicKey = secp.getPublicKey(secretKey);
  const msg = new TextEncoder().encode('hello noble');
  const sig = await secp.signAsync(msg, secretKey);
  const isValid = await secp.verifyAsync(sig, msg, publicKey);

  const bobsKeys = secp.keygen();
  const shared = secp.getSharedSecret(secretKey, bobsKeys.publicKey); // Diffie-Hellman
  const sigr = await secp.signAsync(msg, secretKey, { format: 'recovered' });
  const publicKey2 = secp.recoverPublicKey(sigr, msg);
})();

// Schnorr signatures from BIP340
(async () => {
  const schnorr = secp.schnorr;
  const { secretKey, publicKey } = schnorr.keygen();
  const msg = new TextEncoder().encode('hello noble');
  const sig = await schnorr.signAsync(msg, secretKey);
  const isValid = await schnorr.verifyAsync(sig, msg, publicKey);
})();

Enabling synchronous methods

Only async methods are available by default, to keep the library dependency-free. To enable sync methods:

import { hmac } from '@noble/hashes/hmac.js';
import { sha256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
secp.hashes.hmacSha256 = (key, msg) => hmac(sha256, key, msg);
secp.hashes.sha256 = sha256;

React Native: polyfill getRandomValues and sha256

import 'react-native-get-random-values';
import { hmac } from '@noble/hashes/hmac.js';
import { sha256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha2.js';
secp.hashes.hmacSha256 = (key, msg) => hmac(sha256, key, msg);
secp.hashes.sha256 = sha256;
secp.hashes.hmacSha256Async = async (key, msg) => hmac(sha256, key, msg);
secp.hashes.sha256Async = async (msg) => sha256(msg);

API

There are 4 main methods, which accept Uint8Array-s:

• keygen()
• getPublicKey(secretKey)
• sign(messageHash, secretKey) and signAsync(messageHash, secretKey)
• verify(signature, messageHash, publicKey) and verifyAsync(signature, messageHash, publicKey)

keygen

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';
(async () => {
  const keys = secp.keygen();
  const { secretKey, publicKey } = keys;
})();

getPublicKey

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';
const secretKey = secp.utils.randomSecretKey();
const pubKey33b = secp.getPublicKey(secretKey);

// Variants
const pubKey65b = secp.getPublicKey(secretKey, false);
const pubKeyPoint = secp.Point.fromBytes(pubKey65b);
const samePoint = pubKeyPoint.toBytes();

Generates 33-byte compressed (default) or 65-byte public key from 32-byte private key.

sign

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';
const { secretKey } = secp.keygen();
const msg = 'hello noble';
const sig = secp.sign(msg, secretKey);

// async
const sigB = await secp.signAsync(msg, secretKey);

// recovered, allows `recoverPublicKey(sigR, msg)`
const sigR = secp.sign(msg, secretKey, { format: 'recovered' });
// custom hash
import { keccak256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha3.js';
const sigH = secp.sign(keccak256(msg), secretKey, { prehash: false });
// hedged sig
const sigC = secp.sign(msg, secretKey, { extraEntropy: true });
const sigC2 = secp.sign(msg, secretKey, { extraEntropy: Uint8Array.from([0xca, 0xfe]) });
// malleable sig
const sigD = secp.sign(msg, secretKey, { lowS: false });

Generates low-s deterministic-k RFC6979 ECDSA signature.

• Message will be hashed with sha256. If you want to use a different hash function, make sure to use { prehash: false }.
• extraEntropy: true enables hedged signatures. They incorporate extra randomness into RFC6979 (described in section 3.6), to provide additional protection against fault attacks. Check out blog post Deterministic signatures are not your friends. Even if their RNG is broken, they will fall back to determinism.
• Default behavior lowS: true prohibits signatures which have (sig.s >= CURVE.n/2n) and is compatible with BTC/ETH. Setting lowS: false allows to create malleable signatures, which is default openssl behavior. Non-malleable signatures can still be successfully verified in openssl.

verify

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';
const { secretKey, publicKey } = secp.keygen();
const msg = 'hello noble';
const sig = secp.sign(msg, secretKey);
const isValid = secp.verify(sig, msg, publicKey);

// custom hash
import { keccak256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha3.js';
const sigH = secp.sign(keccak256(msg), secretKey, { prehash: false });

Verifies ECDSA signature.

• Message will be hashed with sha256. If you want to use a different hash function, make sure to use { prehash: false }.
• Default behavior lowS: true prohibits malleable signatures which have (sig.s >= CURVE.n/2n) and is compatible with BTC / ETH. Setting lowS: false allows to create signatures, which is default openssl behavior.

getSharedSecret

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';
const alice = secp.keygen();
const bob = secp.keygen();
const shared33b = secp.getSharedSecret(alice.secretKey, bob.publicKey);
const shared65b = secp.getSharedSecret(bob.secretKey, alice.publicKey, false);
const sharedPoint = secp.Point.fromBytes(bob.publicKey).multiply(
  secp.etc.secretKeyToScalar(alice.secretKey)
);

Computes ECDH (Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman) shared secret between key A and different key B.

recoverPublicKey

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';

const { secretKey, publicKey } = secp.keygen();
const msg = 'hello noble';
const sigR = secp.sign(msg, secretKey, { format: 'recovered' });
const publicKey2 = secp.recoverPublicKey(sigR, msg);

// custom hash
import { keccak256 } from '@noble/hashes/sha3.js';
const sigR = secp.sign(keccak256(msg), secretKey, { format: 'recovered', prehash: false });
const publicKey2 = secp.recoverPublicKey(sigR, keccak256(msg), { prehash: false });

Recover public key from Signature instance with recovery bit set.

schnorr

import { schnorr } from '@noble/secp256k1';
const { secretKey, publicKey } = schnorr.keygen();
const msg = new TextEncoder().encode('hello noble');
const sig = schnorr.sign(msg, secretKey);
const isValid = schnorr.verify(sig, msg, publicKey);

const sig = await schnorr.signAsync(msg, secretKey);
const isValid = await schnorr.verifyAsync(sig, msg, publicKey);

Schnorr signatures compliant with BIP340 are supported.

utils

A bunch of useful utilities are also exposed:

import * as secp from '@noble/secp256k1';

const { bytesToHex, hexToBytes, concatBytes, mod, invert, randomBytes } = secp.etc;
const { isValidSecretKey, isValidPublicKey, randomSecretKey } = secp.utils;
const { Point } = secp;
console.log(Point.CURVE(), Point.BASE);
/*
class Point {
  static BASE: Point;
  static ZERO: Point;
  readonly X: bigint;
  readonly Y: bigint;
  readonly Z: bigint;
  constructor(X: bigint, Y: bigint, Z: bigint);
  static CURVE(): WeierstrassOpts<bigint>;
  static fromAffine(ap: AffinePoint): Point;
  static fromBytes(bytes: Bytes): Point;
  static fromHex(hex: string): Point;
  get x(): bigint;
  get y(): bigint;
  equals(other: Point): boolean;
  is0(): boolean;
  negate(): Point;
  double(): Point;
  add(other: Point): Point;
  subtract(other: Point): Point;
  multiply(n: bigint): Point;
  multiplyUnsafe(scalar: bigint): Point;
  toAffine(): AffinePoint;
  assertValidity(): Point;
  toBytes(isCompressed?: boolean): Bytes;
  toHex(isCompressed?: boolean): string;
}
*/

Security

The module is production-ready.

We cross-test against sister project noble-curves, which was audited and provides improved security.

• The current version has not been independently audited. It is a rewrite of v1, which has been audited by cure53 in Apr 2021: PDF (funded by Umbra.cash & community).
• It's being fuzzed in a separate repository

Constant-timeness

We're targetting algorithmic constant time. JIT-compiler and Garbage Collector make "constant time" extremely hard to achieve timing attack resistance in a scripting language. Which means any other JS library can't have constant-timeness. Even statically typed Rust, a language without GC, makes it harder to achieve constant-time for some cases. If your goal is absolute security, don't use any JS lib — including bindings to native ones. Use low-level libraries & languages.

Supply chain security

• Commits are signed with PGP keys, to prevent forgery. Make sure to verify commit signatures
• Releases are transparent and built on GitHub CI. Check out attested checksums of single-file builds and provenance logs
• Rare releasing is followed to ensure less re-audit need for end-users
• Dependencies are minimized and locked-down: any dependency could get hacked and users will be downloading malware with every install.
  • We make sure to use as few dependencies as possible
  • Automatic dep updates are prevented by locking-down version ranges; diffs are checked with npm-diff
• Dev Dependencies are disabled for end-users; they are only used to develop / build the source code

For this package, there are 0 dependencies; and a few dev dependencies:

• noble-hashes provides cryptographic hashing functionality
• micro-bmark, micro-should and jsbt are used for benchmarking / testing / build tooling and developed by the same author
• prettier, fast-check and typescript are used for code quality / test generation / ts compilation. It's hard to audit their source code thoroughly and fully because of their size

Randomness

We're deferring to built-in crypto.getRandomValues which is considered cryptographically secure (CSPRNG).

In the past, browsers had bugs that made it weak: it may happen again. Implementing a userspace CSPRNG to get resilient to the weakness is even worse: there is no reliable userspace source of quality entropy.

Quantum computers

Cryptographically relevant quantum computer, if built, will allow to break elliptic curve cryptography (both ECDSA / EdDSA & ECDH) using Shor's algorithm.

Consider switching to newer / hybrid algorithms, such as SPHINCS+. They are available in noble-post-quantum.

NIST prohibits classical cryptography (RSA, DSA, ECDSA, ECDH) after 2035. Australian ASD prohibits it after 2030.

Speed

npm run bench

Benchmarks measured with Apple M4. noble-curves enable faster performance.

keygen x 7,643 ops/sec @ 130μs/op
sign x 7,620 ops/sec @ 131μs/op
verify x 823 ops/sec @ 1ms/op
getSharedSecret x 707 ops/sec @ 1ms/op
recoverPublicKey x 790 ops/sec @ 1ms/op

signAsync x 4,874 ops/sec @ 205μs/op
verifyAsync x 811 ops/sec @ 1ms/op

Point.fromBytes x 13,656 ops/sec @ 73μs/op

Upgrading

v2 to v3

v3 brings the package closer to noble-curves v2.

• Add Schnorr signatures
• Most methods now expect Uint8Array, string hex inputs are prohibited
• Add keygen, keygenAsync method
• sign, verify: Switch to prehashed messages. Instead of messageHash, the methods now expect unhashed message. To bring back old behavior, use option {prehash: false}
• sign, verify: Switch to Uint8Array signatures (format: 'compact') by default.
• verify: der format must be explicitly specified in {format: 'der'}. This reduces malleability
• verify: prohibit Signature-instance signature. User must now always do signature.toBytes()
• Node v20.19 is now the minimum required version
• Various small changes for types
• etc: hashes are now set in hashes object. Also sha256 needs to be set now for prehash: true:

// before
// etc.hmacSha256Sync = (key, ...messages) => hmac(sha256, key, etc.concatBytes(...messages));
// etc.hmacSha256Async = (key, ...messages) => Promise.resolve(etc.hmacSha256Sync(key, ...messages));
// after
hashes.hmacSha256 = (key, msg) => hmac(sha256, key, msg);
hashes.sha256 = sha256;
hashes.hmacSha256Async = async (key, msg) => hmac(sha256, key, msg);
hashes.sha256Async = async (msg) => sha256(msg);

v1 to v2

v2 improves security and reduces attack surface. The goal of v2 is to provide minimum possible JS library which is safe and fast.

• Disable some features to ensure 4x smaller than v1, 5KB bundle size:
  • The features are now a part of noble-curves, switch to curves if you need them. Curves is drop-in replacement.
  • DER encoding: toDERHex, toDERRawBytes, signing / verification of DER sigs
  • Schnorr signatures
  • Support for environments which don't support bigint literals
  • Common.js support
  • Support for node.js 18 and older without shim
  • Using utils.precompute() for non-base point
• getPublicKey
  • now produce 33-byte compressed signatures by default
  • to use old behavior, which produced 65-byte uncompressed keys, set argument isCompressed to false: getPublicKey(priv, false)
• sign
  • is now sync; use signAsync for async version
  • now returns Signature instance with { r, s, recovery } properties
  • canonical option was renamed to lowS
  • recovered option has been removed because recovery bit is always returned now
  • der option has been removed. There are 2 options:
    • Use compact encoding: fromCompact, toBytes, toCompactHex. Compact encoding is simply a concatenation of 32-byte r and 32-byte s.
    • If you must use DER encoding, switch to noble-curves (see above).
• verify
  • strict option was renamed to lowS
• getSharedSecret
  • now produce 33-byte compressed signatures by default
  • to use old behavior, which produced 65-byte uncompressed keys, set argument isCompressed to false: getSharedSecret(a, b, false)
• recoverPublicKey(msg, sig, rec) was changed to sig.recoverPublicKey(msg)
• number type for private keys have been removed: use bigint instead
• Point (2d xy) has been changed to ProjectivePoint (3d xyz)
• utils were split into utils (same api as in noble-curves) and etc (hmacSha256Sync and others)

Contributing & testing

• npm install && npm run build && npm test will build the code and run tests.
• npm run bench will run benchmarks
• npm run build:release will build single non-module file

See paulmillr.com/noble for useful resources, articles, documentation and demos related to the library.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Paul Miller (https://paulmillr.com)

See LICENSE file.