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bip-0375: assign k in output index order - #2256

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bip-0375: assign k in output index order#2256
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@fametrano

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BIP375 states one rule for assigning k to the silent payment outputs of a
transaction, and its test vectors and reference validator implement another.
This amends the prose to the rule the shipped artefacts follow.

The discrepancy

bip-0375.mediawiki L240-241 asks for the codes sharing a scan key to be
sorted lexicographically, with a tie-break by output index for codes sharing
both keys. bip-0375/validator/validate_psbt.py does not sort: it tracks k
per scan key while walking enumerate(psbt.o). The vectors were generated the
same way.

Measured with bip-0375/test_runner.py on Python 3.12, at 60f5b33b:

tree result
master, unchanged 41 passed, 0 failed
master, validator patched to assign k by ascending PSBT_OUT_SP_V0_INFO, ties by output index 40 passed, 1 failed: valid[8], "two sp outputs - output 0 uses label=3 / output 1 uses label=1"

That vector's two spend keys are in descending order, so a lexicographic sort
gives k = 0 to output 1, and the scripts the file publishes are the ones
index order derives. No invalid vector changes verdict under either rule; the
two invalid vectors named after ordering do not discriminate, since in one the
spend keys are already ascending and in the other all three codes are
identical.

Why index order rather than the reverse fix

#2207 closes the same gap the
other way, by correcting the vectors and the validator to the prose. Both work.
This one is proposed because the rule is cheaper to state and to implement:

  • lexicographic order needs a canonical encoding of a "code" and a total order
    on it. "The codes" admits at least three readings — the 66-byte
    PSBT_OUT_SP_V0_INFO, the bech32m address string, or the (scan, spend)
    pair — and the BIP names none of them. Output indices are already in the
    psbt and already agreed by both parties;
  • the property a code-based order would buy, invariance under output
    reordering, is unavailable here: a Signer that sets any missing
    PSBT_OUT_SCRIPT must clear the Inputs Modifiable and Outputs Modifiable
    flags (L185), and a psbt carrying a script with PSBT_GLOBAL_TX_MODIFIABLE
    non-zero is invalid. The outputs cannot be reordered once the scripts exist;
  • what the rule has to buy appears to be inter-party determinism only. A
    BIP352 receiver scans by deriving P_k for k = 0, 1, 2 … and matching
    against the transaction's outputs, so it never learns which output was
    assigned which k; and permuting k within a scan-key group still pays
    each recipient the same amount, since an output's script is derived from its
    own spend key. If that is right, any deterministic rule is correct and the
    choice is one of cost.

If the owners prefer #2207's direction, this should be closed in its favour —
the two are alternatives on the ordering question, and #2207's other half, the
labeled spend key in PSBT_OUT_SP_V0_INFO, is independent of it and looks
right either way.

The second sentence

Dropping it is not a loss: one counter per scan key covers codes sharing both
keys with no tie-break. What it left unsaid is added in its place, because it
is the part an implementer gets wrong — the counter counts the outputs of that
scan key, not the output index, which the vector "three sp outputs (same scan
key) / two regular outputs - k values assigned independently of output index"
exercises.

Checks

scripts/link-format-chk.sh, scripts/buildtable.pl, scripts/diffcheck.sh
and typos all pass locally. The version header and the changelog entry are
the first thing to rebase if #2207 lands first.

Found while implementing BIP375 in btclib, which follows the vectors:
btclib-org/btclib#768

The two sentences under "Computing the Output Scripts" ask for the codes
sharing a scan key to be sorted lexicographically. The test vectors and
bip-0375/validator/validate_psbt.py do not do that: the validator tracks
k per scan key while walking the outputs in index order, and the vectors
were generated the same way.

Patching the validator to the prose fails the valid vector "two sp
outputs - output 0 uses label=3 / output 1 uses label=1", whose two spend
keys are in descending order; nothing else in the file changes verdict.

Index order is also the cheaper rule to state. Lexicographic order needs
a canonical encoding of a "code" -- the 66-byte PSBT_OUT_SP_V0_INFO, the
bech32m address string, or the (scan, spend) pair are all readings of the
present wording -- while output indices are already in the psbt. The
invariance under output reordering that a code-based order would buy is
unavailable here, because a Signer setting a missing PSBT_OUT_SCRIPT must
clear the Inputs Modifiable and Outputs Modifiable flags, so the outputs
cannot be reordered once the scripts exist.

The second sentence, on codes sharing both keys, becomes redundant: one
counter per scan key covers identical codes without a tie-break. What it
did leave unsaid is added instead, since it is the part an implementer
gets wrong: the counter counts the outputs of that scan key, not the
output index, which the vector "three sp outputs (same scan key) / two
regular outputs - k values assigned independently of output index"
exercises.
@jonatack

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@fametrano Thank you for your proposal. Can you summarize the PR description more concisely in your own words, please.

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