SIMD-0048
Native Program for verifying secp256r1 sig.
TL;DR
Adding a Native Program to support the verification of signatures generated on the secp256r1 curve. Analogous to the support for secp256k1 and ed25519 signatures that already exists in form of the `KeccakSecp256k11111111111111111111111111111` and `Ed25519SigVerify111111111111111111111111111` native programs
Summary
Adding a Native Program to support the verification of signatures generated on the secp256r1 curve. Analogous to the support for secp256k1 and ed25519 signatures that already exists in form of the `KeccakSecp256k11111111111111111111111111111` and `Ed25519SigVerify111111111111111111111111111` native programs
Motivation
Solana should have option to secure your funds in a self custodial manner that doesn't just airgap your private key with a hardware wallet (which even then remains as a single point of failure). Arguably, multi-signature wallets fit into this equation as they enable the dependency on multiple private keys. However in practice the UX takes too much of a hit, as having to sign a transaction a minimum of 3 seperate times and having to write down 3 seed phrases is too cumbersome. It would be ideal to have an authetication form that relies on a more familiar second factor, such as a users mobile device. Passkeys & WebAuthn are a standardized implementation of this. They enable users to save keypairs associated to different services natively on the secure element of their mobile device. To authenticate with those services, the user uses their biometrics to sign a message with the stored private key. And although this is meant to enable password-less logins in web2, it makes for an excellent candidate as a second factor of on-chain authentication. Going past just securing funds, this would support other beneficial account abstractions that make use of the simple UX of WebAuthn and Passkeys. Note: Although WebAuthn supports the following curves: - P-256 - P-384 - P-521 - ed25519 P-256 is the only one suported by both Android & IOS (IOS being the more restrictive of the two), hence the goal being to implement secp256r1 signature verification General Documentation: [WebAuthn](https://webauthn.io/) [Passkeys](https://fidoalliance.org/passkeys/)
Key Changes
- A first u8 as the count for the number of signatures to check
- Single byte of padding
- The following struct serialized, for each signature to verify
Impact
Would enable the on-chain usage of Passkeys and the WebAuthn Standard. By extension this would also enable the creation of account abstractions and forms of Two-Factor Authentication around those keypairs.
Backwards Compatibility
Transactions using the instruction could not be used on Solana versions which don't implement this feature. A Feature gate should be used to enable this feature when the majority of the cluster is using the required version. Transactions that do not use this feature are not impacted.
Security Considerations
- Ensure parity of test results and parameters with those found in [SEC2](https://www.secg.org/sec2-v2.pdf) for the secp256r1 curve - Ensure signature malleability is prevented/accounted for