Re: [9front] Re: memory(2): mention tsmemcmp

[umbraticus@prosimetrum.com]

Thanks.  Just fixed your itses and suggested some
mild improvements to the wording below.

diff -r 47a307f91238 sys/man/2/memory
--- a/sys/man/2/memory	Fri Apr 30 00:20:39 2021 +0200
+++ b/sys/man/2/memory	Sun May 02 17:20:35 2021 +0300
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 .TH MEMORY 2
 .SH NAME
-memccpy, memchr, memcmp, memcpy, memmove, memset \- memory operations
+memccpy, memchr, memcmp, memcpy, memmove, memset, tsmemcmp \- memory operations
 .SH SYNOPSIS
 .B #include <u.h>
 .br
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@
 .PP
 .B
 void*	memset(void *s, int c, ulong n)
+.PP
+.B #include <libsec.h>
+.PP
+.B
+int	tsmemcmp(void *s1, void *s2, ulong n)
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 These functions operate efficiently on memory areas
 (arrays of bytes bounded by a count, not terminated by a zero byte).
@@ -103,11 +108,22 @@
 .IR c .
 It returns
 .IR s .
+.PP
+.I Tsmemcmp
+is a variant of
+.I memcmp
+that is safe against timing attacks.
+It does not stop when it sees a difference,
+so that its runtime is a function of
+.I n
+and not something that can give an attacker clues.
 .SH SOURCE
 All these routines have portable C implementations in
 .BR /sys/src/libc/port .
 Most also have machine-dependent assembly language implementations in
 .BR /sys/src/libc/$objtype .
+.I Tsmemcmp
+is found at
+.BR /sys/src/libsec/port/tsmemcmp.c .
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .IR strcat (2)
 .SH BUGS
@@ -124,3 +140,8 @@
 and
 .I memmove
 are handed a negative count, they abort.
+.PP
+.I Memcmp
+should not be used to compare sensitive data,
+as it is vulnerable to timing attacks.
+Instead,
+.I tsmemcmp
+should be used.