Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cantonfoundation-generated-hydration-fix.mintlify.app/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Supported Cryptographic Schemes And Formats
Within Canton, we use the cryptographic primitives of signing, symmetric encryption, and asymmetric encryption, with the following supported cryptographic schemes and formats. For asymmetric signing and encryption, each scheme is divided into a key and an algorithm specification.Legend for the following tables:
- S = Supported
- P¹ = Partially supported — only supports signature verification, not signing with a private key
- P² = Partially supported — only supports encryption, not decryption with a private key
- Values in brackets ([<scheme>]) indicate the configuration strings to use in Canton
| Key Spec | JCE | KMS | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
EC-Curve25519 [ec-curve-25519] | S | P¹ | Signing |
EC-P256 [ec-p-256] | S | S | Signing, Encryption |
EC-P384 [ec-p-384] | S | S | Signing |
EC-Secp256k1 [ec-secp-256k-1] | S | S | Signing |
RSA-2048 [rsa-2048] | S | S | Encryption |
| Algorithm | JCE | KMS | Supported Key Specs |
|---|---|---|---|
Ed25519 [ed-25519] | S | P¹ | EC-Curve25519 |
EC-DSA-SHA256 [ec-dsa-sha-256] | S | S | EC-P256, EC-Secp256k1 |
EC-DSA-SHA384 [ec-dsa-sha-384] | S | S | EC-P384 |
| Algorithm | JCE | KMS | Supported Key Specs |
|---|---|---|---|
ECIES-HMAC-SHA256-AES128-CBC [ecies-hkdf-hmac-sha-256-aes-128-cbc] | S | P² | EC-P256 |
RSA-OAEP-SHA256 [rsa-oaep-sha-256] | S | S | RSA-2048 |
| Crypto provider | JCE Default Scheme | KMS Default Scheme |
|---|---|---|
| Signing key specification | EC-Curve25519 | EC-P256 |
| Signing algorithm specification | Ed25519 | EC-DSA-SHA256 |
| Asymmetric encryption key specification | EC-P256 | RSA-2048 |
| Asymmetric encryption algorithm | ECIES with HMAC-SHA256 and AES128-CBC | RSA with OAEP and SHA-256 |
| Symmetric encryption scheme1 | AES128-GCM | Same as JCE |
| Hash Algorithm2 | SHA-256 | Same as JCE |
| PBKDF3 | Argon2id | Same as JCE |
| Provider | SIGNING | ENCRYPTION |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | Key Purpose: SIGN_VERIFYKey Algorithms: ECC_NIST_P256 or ECC_NIST_P384 | Key Purpose: ENCRYPT_DECRYPTKey Algorithm: RSA_2048 |
| GCP | Key Purpose: ASYMMETRIC_SIGNKey Algorithms: EC_SIGN_P256_SHA256 or EC_SIGN_P384_SHA384 | Key Purpose: ASYMMETRIC_DECRYPTKey Algorithm: RSA_DECRYPT_OAEP_2048_SHA256 |
| Driver | Must be compatible with EC_P256_SHA256 or EC_P384_SHA384 | Must be compatible with RSA_OAEP_2048_SHA256 |
| Key Type | Format (Config) | Format (gRPC / Protobuf) |
|---|---|---|
| Public Key | der-x-509-spki | CRYPTO_KEY_FORMAT_DER_X509_SUBJECT_PUBLIC_KEY_INFO |
| Private Key | der-pkcs-8-pki | CRYPTO_KEY_FORMAT_DER_PKCS8_PRIVATE_KEY_INFO |
| Symmetric Key4 | raw | CRYPTO_KEY_FORMAT_RAW |
| Key Type | Supported Format | OpenSSL | GCP KMS | AWS KMS | Java.security | Python (cryptography) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Key | DER SPKI (X.509 SubjectPublicKeyInfo) | -outform DER | keys default to DER SPKI | keys default to DER SPKI | keys default to DER SPKI | public_bytes(Encoding.DER, PublicFormat.SubjectPublicKeyInfo) |
| Private Key | DER PKCS#8 PrivateKeyInfo | -outform DER | n/a | n/a | keys default to DER PKCS#8 | private_bytes(Encoding.DER, PrivateFormat.PKCS8) |
| Symmetric Key | raw bytes | n/a | n/a | n/a | keys default to raw bytes | keys default to raw bytes |
| Signing Algorithm Specifications | Signature Format (Config) | Signature Format (gRPC / Protobuf) |
|---|---|---|
| Ed25519 | concat | SIGNATURE_FORMAT_CONCAT |
| EC-DSA-SHA256 | der | SIGNATURE_FORMAT_DER |
| EC-DSA-SHA384 | der | SIGNATURE_FORMAT_DER |
The currently supported signature formats in Canton align with the default signature formats used when generating signatures with OpenSSL, Java, or Python (
cryptography package).Footnotes
- Default and only supported scheme; not configurable. ↩
- Default and only supported hash algorithm; not configurable. ↩
- Default and only supported PBKDF; not configurable. ↩
-
Symmetric keys are only used internally. A node operator will not operate on symmetric keys; this entry is provided for reference only. The only key format a node operator is expected to interact with is
X.509public keys. ↩