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ECDSA registry signatures aren't reproducible

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Description

I'm following the guide at https://docs.npmjs.com/about-registry-signatures, and I'm struggling to verify the ECDSA signatures that get published to the NPM registry.

Some example code, that shows things like which hashing algorithm is used for the contents of bundles (I'm just assuming that it's sha256 currently), and whether the keys are base64 encoded using the standard algorithm or the alternate under RFC 4648, would be immensely helpful.

I've written what I have so far below, and would appreciate some help getting it to work. Feel free to add it to your documentation once it does!

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"crypto/ecdsa"
	"crypto/sha256"
	"crypto/x509"
	"encoding/base64"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
)

func downloadPackage(compressedPackage *bytes.Buffer) error {
	resp, err := http.Get("https://registry.npmjs.org/light-cycle/-/light-cycle-1.4.3.tgz")
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("package download failed: %v", err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		return fmt.Errorf("pacakge download bad status code: %s", resp.Status)
	}

	_, err = io.Copy(compressedPackage, resp.Body)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to read package to buffer: %v", err)
	}

	return nil
}

func verifyPackage(compressedPackage *bytes.Buffer) error {
	// From https://registry.npmjs.org/light-cycle/1.4.3.
	versionSignature := "MEUCIQCX/49atNeSDYZP8betYWEqB0G8zZnIyB7ibC7nRNyMiQIgHosOKHhVTVNBI/6iUNSpDokOc44zsZ7TfybMKj8YdfY="

	// From https://registry.npmjs.org/-/npm/v1/keys.
	publicKey := "MFkwEwYHKoZIzj0CAQYIKoZIzj0DAQcDQgAE1Olb3zMAFFxXKHiIkQO5cJ3Yhl5i6UPp+IhuteBJbuHcA5UogKo0EWtlWwW6KSaKoTNEYL7JlCQiVnkhBktUgg=="

	// Decode and parse the public key.
	publicKeyBytes, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(publicKey)
	fmt.Printf("PUBLIC KEY BASE 64 BYTES: %x\n", publicKeyBytes)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error decoding public key bytes: %v", err)
	}
	parsedPublicKeyUntyped, err := x509.ParsePKIXPublicKey(publicKeyBytes)
	parsedPublicKey := parsedPublicKeyUntyped.(*ecdsa.PublicKey)
	fmt.Printf("PARSED PUBLIC KEY X: %v, Y: %v\n", parsedPublicKey.X, parsedPublicKey.Y)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error parsing public key: %v", err)
	}

	// Decode the signature.
	versionSignatureBytes, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(versionSignature)
	fmt.Printf("SIGNATURE BYTES: %x\n", versionSignatureBytes)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error decoding signature bytes: %v", err)
	}

	// Verify the signature against the package's SHA256 sum.
	// presentSHA256Bytes := md5.Sum(compressedPackage.Bytes())
	presentSHA256Bytes := sha256.Sum256(compressedPackage.Bytes())
	fmt.Printf("PRESENT SHA256: %x\n", presentSHA256Bytes)
	if !ecdsa.VerifyASN1(parsedPublicKey, presentSHA256Bytes[:], versionSignatureBytes) {
		return fmt.Errorf("signature verification failed")
	}
	return nil
}

func main() {
	var compressedPackage bytes.Buffer
	if err := downloadPackage(&compressedPackage); err != nil {
		fmt.Printf("failed to download package: %v", err)
	}
	if err := verifyPackage(&compressedPackage); err != nil {
		fmt.Printf("failed to verify package: %v", err)
	}
}

Currently this outputs:

PUBLIC KEY BASE 64 BYTES: 3059301306072a8648ce3d020106082a8648ce3d03010703420004d4e95bdf3300145c572878889103b9709dd8865e62e943e9f8886eb5e0496ee1dc03952880aa34116b655b05ba29268aa1334460bec9942422567921064b5482
PARSED PUBLIC KEY X: 96302633342102462193322732537154456057293035750541189099858346903022946840289, Y: 99515156681666470022533827122417036293197994443229625834881400620927226172546
SIGNATURE BYTES: 304502210097ff8f5ab4d7920d864ff1b7ad61612a0741bccd99c8c81ee26c2ee744dc8c8902201e8b0e2878554d534123fea250d4a90e890e738e33b19ed37f26cc2a3f1875f6
PRESENT SHA256: a1b59bcdca7b8a6844c48fee7031842fcecec26fb028e4b5cbcb8c055ca0eeaa
failed to verify package: signature verification failed

Thank you for any help!

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the registry signatures guide and the linked registry version and key endpoints, then compare them with the provided Go verification example. Document the hashing and encoding details needed for reproducible ECDSA verification, and add a working example to the documentation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
cryptography, documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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