What does PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1 return value mean

Question

I'm attempting to use OpenSSL's PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1 method. I gather that it returns 0 if it succeeds, and some other value otherwise. My question is, what does a non-zero return value mean? Memory error? Usage error? How should my program handle it (retry, quit?)?

Edit: A corollary question is, is there any way to figure this out besides reverse-engineering the method itself?

Answer 1

is there any way to figure this out besides reverse-engineering the method itself?

PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1 looks like one of those undocumented functions because I can't find it in the OpenSSL docs. OpenSSL has a lot of them, so you should be prepared to study the sources if you are going to use the library.

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I gather that it returns 0 if it succeeds, and some other value otherwise.

Actually, its reversed. Here's how I know...

$ grep -R PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1 *
crypto/evp/evp.h:int PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1(const char *pass, int passlen,
crypto/evp/p5_crpt2.c:int PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1(const char *pass, int passlen,
...

So, you find the function's implementation in crypto/evp/p5_crpt2.c:

int PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1(const char *pass, int passlen,
                           const unsigned char *salt, int saltlen, int iter,
                           int keylen, unsigned char *out)
    {
        return PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC(pass, passlen, salt, saltlen, iter,
                                 EVP_sha1(), keylen, out);
    }

Following PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC:

$ grep -R PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC *
...
crypto/evp/evp.h:int PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC(const char *pass, int passlen,
crypto/evp/p5_crpt2.c:int PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC(const char *pass, int passlen,
...

And again, from crypto/evp/p5_crpt2.c:

int PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC(const char *pass, int passlen,
                      const unsigned char *salt, int saltlen, int iter,
                      const EVP_MD *digest,
                      int keylen, unsigned char *out)
{
    unsigned char digtmp[EVP_MAX_MD_SIZE], *p, itmp[4];
    int cplen, j, k, tkeylen, mdlen;
    unsigned long i = 1;
    HMAC_CTX hctx_tpl, hctx;

    mdlen = EVP_MD_size(digest);
    if (mdlen < 0)
        return 0;

    HMAC_CTX_init(&hctx_tpl);
    p = out;
    tkeylen = keylen;
    if(!pass)
        passlen = 0;
    else if(passlen == -1)
        passlen = strlen(pass);
    if (!HMAC_Init_ex(&hctx_tpl, pass, passlen, digest, NULL))
    {
        HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx_tpl);
        return 0;
    }
    while(tkeylen)
    {
        if(tkeylen > mdlen)
            cplen = mdlen;
        else
            cplen = tkeylen;
        /* We are unlikely to ever use more than 256 blocks (5120 bits!)
         * but just in case...
         */
        itmp[0] = (unsigned char)((i >> 24) & 0xff);
        itmp[1] = (unsigned char)((i >> 16) & 0xff);
        itmp[2] = (unsigned char)((i >> 8) & 0xff);
        itmp[3] = (unsigned char)(i & 0xff);
        if (!HMAC_CTX_copy(&hctx, &hctx_tpl))
        {
            HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx_tpl);
            return 0;
        }
        if (!HMAC_Update(&hctx, salt, saltlen)
            || !HMAC_Update(&hctx, itmp, 4)
            || !HMAC_Final(&hctx, digtmp, NULL))
        {
            HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx_tpl);
            HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx);
            return 0;
        }
        HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx);
        memcpy(p, digtmp, cplen);
        for(j = 1; j < iter; j++)
        {
            if (!HMAC_CTX_copy(&hctx, &hctx_tpl))
            {
                HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx_tpl);
                return 0;
            }
            if (!HMAC_Update(&hctx, digtmp, mdlen)
                || !HMAC_Final(&hctx, digtmp, NULL))
            {
                HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx_tpl);
                HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx);
                return 0;
            }
            HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx);
            for(k = 0; k < cplen; k++)
                p[k] ^= digtmp[k];
        }
        tkeylen-= cplen;
        i++;
        p+= cplen;
    }
    HMAC_CTX_cleanup(&hctx_tpl);

    return 1;
}

So it looks like 0 on failure, and 1 on success. You should not see other values. And if you get a 0, then all the OUT parameters are junk.

---

Memory error? Usage error?

Well, sometimes you can call ERR_get_error. If you call it and it makes sense, then the error code is good. If the error code makes no sense, then its probably not good.

Sadly, that's the way I handle it because the library is not consistent with setting error codes. For example, here's the library code to load the RDRAND engine.

Notice the code clears the error code on failure if its a 3rd generation Ivy Bridge (that's the capability being tested), and does not clear or set an error otherwise!!!

void ENGINE_load_rdrand (void)
{
    extern unsigned int OPENSSL_ia32cap_P[];

    if (OPENSSL_ia32cap_P[1] & (1<<(62-32)))
    {
        ENGINE *toadd = ENGINE_rdrand();
        if(!toadd) return;
        ENGINE_add(toadd);
        ENGINE_free(toadd);
        ERR_clear_error();
    }
}

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How should my program handle it (retry, quit?)?

It looks like a hard failure.

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Finally, that's exactly how I navigate the sources in this situation. If you don't like grep you can try ctags or another source code browser.