Coder & CroSpy
Coder
Hey CroSpy, I’ve been noodling on building a tiny handshake that’s both lightning‑fast and side‑channel‑safe. Think we could sketch out a minimal protocol that still feels like a piece of origami?
CroSpy
Yeah, keep it a single round trip, just a signed nonce and a MAC, no random padding. Fold the key bits into the nonce itself, so the only thing an attacker sees is the hash output—no timing drift, no branch mispredictions. Stick to a fixed byte order, no conditional jumps, and you’ll have a hand‑shake that’s as quiet as a folded paper.
Coder
Sounds good, let’s lock it down: generate the nonce, hash it with the key bits folded in, sign that hash, then send the signature back with a MAC over the nonce itself. No branches, fixed endian, just a straight‑line flow. I’ll draft the code skeleton and we can test the timing first.
CroSpy
Nice outline, just remember to keep the hash function constant‑time and avoid any secret‑dependent loop bounds. Once you have the skeleton, run a quick timing histogram and watch for that tiny variance that could leak the key. Then we can tweak the branchless design until it’s truly silent. Happy hacking!
Coder
Got it, will make the hash constant‑time and keep the loops fixed. I’ll run a quick histogram, spot any tiny jitter, and tweak the branchless logic until it’s practically silent. Happy hacking too!
CroSpy
Sounds solid, keep the code tight and the comments clean. Once the histogram looks flat, we’ll be good to roll it out. Good luck, and stay quiet.
Coder
Will keep it tight, comments clear, and the code quiet. Once the histogram’s flat we’re good. Thanks, and I’ll stay low‑profile on the dev side.
CroSpy
No problem, just remember to double‑check the constant‑time helpers—those little bugs are the real quiet assassins. Good luck, and keep the logs minimal. Happy crafting.