Invalid ECDSA curve for authentication signature

[ts5746]

Description

After updating the jsonwebtoken package to version 9+, verifying previously valid Whiteflag authentication method 1 signatures result in an error: "alg" parameter "ES256" requires curve "prime256v1".

Environment / Versions

Software

OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Node.js: v20.14.0 whiteflag-api: 1.0.1-beta.3-dev

Blockchain

Any blockchain using the secp256k1 curve is affected (e.g. Bitcoin and Ethereum). Other blockchains possibly too.

Symptoms and Problem details

Steps to reproduce

Running npm test gives the same error as passing a signature to verify to the API REST interface (i.e. POST-ing a signature to the /signature/verify endpoint).

Expected result

The test should pass and the signature verification should give a positive result.

Actual result

The test run gives the following error:

 1) Whiteflag authentication tests
       Key encoding and signature pseudo tests
          1B. should correctly verify authentication signature:
     Error: Could not verify signature: "alg" parameter "ES256" requires curve "prime256v1".
      at authVerifySignatureCb (test/protocol/authentication.js:66:33)
      at /srv/src/whiteflag-api/node_modules/jsonwebtoken/verify.js:158:16
      ...

Using the REST interface, a 500 Internal Server Error is returned, with the following information about the request in the log:

[INFO ] api: Client localhost: ERROR: Could not verify signature: "alg" parameter "ES256" requires curve "prime256v1".: {"operationId":"verifySignature","version":"1.0.1-beta.3-dev","request":{"client":"localhost","method":"POST","url":"http://localhost/signature/verify"}}

[ts5746]

As of version 9 of the jsonwebtoken package, keys with algorithms that don’t confirm to the JWS standard will fail when signing and verifying. The ES256 algorithm using P-256 /SHA-256 digital signatures strictly require the prime256v1 curve, as per RFC 7518.

However, Whiteflag is using JSON Web Tokens just as a structure. For Whiteflag authentication method 1 to work, it is essential that the key pair and curve of the blockchain is used for the signature to prove possession of the associated secret key. For example, Bitcoin and Ethereum are using the secp256k1 curve.

To preserve the intended behaviour, the allowInvalidAsymmetricKeyTypes should be set to true.

[ts5746]

Solved by adding { allowInvalidAsymmetricKeyTypes: true } to JWT siging and verifyting functions in:

• lib/protocol/authenticate.js
• lib/blockchains/common.js
• test/protocol/authentication.js