This commit continues rewriting the CRT chain verification to use
the new acquire/release framework for CRTs. Specifically, it replaces
all member accesses of the current _parent_ CRT by accesses to the
respective frame.
This commit introduces an internal structure `mbedtls_x509_crt_sig_info`
containing all information that has to be kept from a child CRT when searching
for a potential parent:
- The issuer name
- The signature type
- The signature
- The hash of the CRT
The structure can be obtained from a CRT frame via `x509_crt_get_sig_info()`
and freed via `x509_crt_free_sig_info()`.
The purpose of this is to reduce the amount of RAM used during CRT
chain verification; once we've extracted the signature info structure
from the current child CRT, we can free all cached data for that CRT
(frame and PK) before searching for a suitable parent. This way, there
will ultimately not be more than one frame needed at a single point
during the verification.
The function `x509_crt_find_parent_in()` traverses a list of CRTs
to find a potential parent to a given CRT. So far, the logic was
the following: For each candidate,
- check basic parenting skills (mostly name match)
- verify signature
- verify validity
This order is insuitable for the new acquire/release layer of
indirection when dealing with CRTs, because we either have to
query the candidate's CRT frame twice, or query frame and PK
simultaneously.
This commit moves the validity check to the beginning of the
routine to allow querying for the frame and then for the PK.
The entry point for restartable ECC needs to be moved for that
to not forget the validity-flag while pausing ECC computations.
During CRT verification, `x509_crt_check_signature()` checks whether a
candidate parent CRT correctly signs the current child CRT.
This commit rewrites this function to use the new acquire/release
framework for using CRTs.
The goal of the subsequent commits is to remove all direct uses
of the existing `mbedtls_x509_crt` apart from the `raw` buffer
and the linked list `next` pointer.
The approach is the following: Whenever a code-path needs to inspect
a CRT, it can request a frame for the CRT through the API
`x509_crt_frame_acquire()`. On success, this function returns a pointer
to a frame structure for the CRT (the origin of which is flexible and
need not concern the caller) that can be used to inspect the desired
fields. Once done, the caller hands back the frame through an explicit
call to `x509_crt_frame_release()`.
This commit also adds an inefficient dummy implementation for
`x509_crt_frame_acquire()` which always allocates a new
`mbedtls_x509_crt_frame` structure on the heap and parses it
from the raw data underlying the CRT. This will change in subsequent
commits, but it constitutes a valid implementation to test against.
Ultimately, `x509_crt_frame_acquire()` is to compute a frame for the
given CRT only once, and cache it for subsequent calls.
The need for `x509_crt_frame_release()` is the following: When
implementing `x509_crt_frame_acquire()` through a flushable cache
as indicated above, it must be ensured that no thread destroys
a cached frame structure for the time it is needed by another
thread. The `acquire/release` pair allows to explicitly delimit
the lifetime requirements for the returned frame structure.
The frame pointer must not be used after the `release` call anymore;
and in fact, the dummy implementation shows that it would
immediately lead to a memory failure.
Analogously to `x509_crt_frame_{acquire|release}()`, there's also
`x509_crt_pk_{acquire|release}()` which allows to acquire/release
a PK context setup from the public key contained within the CRT.
This commit restructures the parsing of X.509 CRTs in the following way:
First, it introduces a 'frame' structure `mbedtls_x509_crt_frame`, which
contains pointers to some structured fields of a CRT as well as copies of
primitive fields. For example, there's a pointer-length pair delimiting the raw
public key data in the CRT, but there's a C-uint8 to store the CRT version
(not a pointer-length pair delimiting the ASN.1 structure holding the version).
Setting up a frame from a raw CRT buffer does not require any memory outside
of the frame structure itself; it's just attaches a 'template' to the buffer
that allows to inspect the structured parts of the CRT afterwards.
Note that the frame structure does not correspond to a particular ASN.1
structure; for example, it contains pointers to delimit the three parts
of a CRT (TBS, SignatureAlgorithm, Signature), but also pointers to the
fields of the TBS, and pointers into the Extensions substructure of the TBS.
Further, the commit introduces an internal function `x509_crt_parse_frame()`
which sets up a frame from a raw CRT buffer, as well as several small helper
functions which help setting up the more complex structures (Subject, Issuer, PK)
from the frame.
These functions are then put to use to rewrite the existing parsing function
`mbedtls_x509_crt_parse_der_core()` by setting up a CRT frame from the input
buffer, residing on the stack, and afterwards copying the respective fields
to the actual `mbedtls_x509_crt` structure and performing the deeper parsing
through the various helper functions.
At every occasion where we're using `mbedtls_x509_memcasecmp()` we're
checking that the two buffer lengths coincide before making the call.
This commit saves a few bytes of code by moving this length check
to `mbedtls_x509_memcasecmp()`.
This commit adds a callback for use with `x509_subject_alt_name_traverse()`
which builds the legacy dynamically allocated linked list presentation
of the `SubjectAlternativeNames` extension while traversing the raw data.
The current CN name verification x509_crt_verify_name() traverses
the dynamically allocated linked list presentation of the subject
alternative name extension, searching for an alternative name that
matches the desired hostname configured by the application.
Eventually, we want to remove this dynamically allocated linked list
for the benefit of reduced code size and RAM usage, and hence need to
rewrite x509_crt_verify_name() in a way that builds on the raw ASN.1
buffer holding the SubjectAlternativeNames extension.
This commit does this by using the existing SubjectAlternativeNames
traversal routine x509_subject_alt_name_traverse(), passing to it a
callback which compares the current alternative name component to the
desired hostname configured by the application.
This commit adds a new function `x509_subject_alt_name_traverse()`
which allows to traverse the raw ASN.1 data of a `SubjectAlternativeNames`
extension.
The `SubjectAlternativeNames` extension needs to be traversed
in the following situations:
1 Initial traversal to check well-formedness of ASN.1 data
2 Traversal to check for a particular name component
3 Building the legacy linked list presentation
Analogously to how multiple tasks related to X.509 name comparison
are implemented through the workhorse `mbedtlS_x509_name_cmp_raw()`,
the new function `x509_subject_alt_name_traverse()` allows to pass
an arbitrary callback which is called on any component of the
`SubjectAlternativeNames` extension found. This way, the above
three tasks can be implemented by passing
1 a NULL callback,
2 a name comparison callback
3 a linked list building callback.
In preparation for rewriting the `SubjectAlternativeName` search routine
to use raw ASN.1 data, this commit changes `x509_check_wildcard()` and
`x509_check_cn()`, responsible for checking whether a name matches a
wildcard pattern, to take a raw buffer pointer and length as parameters
instead of an `mbedtls_x509_buf` instance.
This is analogous to a previous commit for the `ExtendedKeyUsage`
extension: We aim at not using dynamically allocated linked lists
to represent the components of the `SubjectAlternativeName` extension,
but to traverse the raw ASN.1 data when needed.
This commit adds a field to `mbedtls_x509_crt` containing the raw
ASN.1 buffer bounds of the `SubjectAlternativeNames` extension.
This commit re-implements `mbedtls_x509_crt_check_extended_key_usage()`
to not use the dynamically allocated linked list presentation of the
`ExtendedKeyUsage` but to search for the required usage by traversing
the raw ASN.1 data.
The previous commits replace the use of dynamically allocated linked lists
for X.509 name inspection. This commit is the first in a series which attempts
the same for the `ExtendedKeyUsage` extension. So far, when a CRT is parsed,
the extension is traversed and converted into a dynamically allocated linked
list, which is then search through whenever the usage of a CRT needs to be
checked through `mbedtls_x509_check_extended_key_usage()`.
As a first step, this commit introduces a raw buffer holding the bounds
of the `ExtendedKeyUsage` extension to the `mbedtls_x509_crt` structure.
The previous CN name comparison function x509_crt_verify_name()
traversed the dynamically allocated linked list presentation of
the CRT's subject, comparing each entry to the desired hostname
configured by the application code.
Eventually, we want to get rid of the linked list presentation of
the CRT's subject to save both code and RAM usage, and hence need
to rewrite the CN verification routine in a way that builds on the
raw ASN.1 subject data only.
In order to avoid duplicating the code for the parsing of the nested
ASN.1 name structure, this commit performs the name search by using
the existing name traversal function mbedtls_x509_name_cmp_raw(),
passing to it a callback which checks whether the current name
component matches the desired hostname.
There are three operations that need to be performed on an X.509 name:
1 Initial traversal to check well-formedness of the ASN.1 structure.
2 Comparison between two X.509 name sequences.
3 Checking whether an X.509 name matches a client's ServerName request.
Each of these tasks involves traversing the nested ASN.1 structure,
In the interest of saving code, we aim to provide a single function
which can perform all of the above tasks.
The existing comparison function is already suitable not only for task 2,
but also for 1: One can simply pass two equal ASN.1 name buffers, in which
case the function will succeed if and only if that buffer is a well-formed
ASN.1 name.
This commit further adds a callback to `mbedtls_x509_name_cmp_raw()` which
is called after each successful step in the simultaneous name traversal and
comparison; it may perform any operation on the current name and potentially
signal that the comparison should be aborted.
With that, task 3 can be implemented by passing equal names and a callback
which aborts as soon as it finds the desired name component.
This commit replaces the previous calls to `mbedtls_x509_name_cmp()`
during CRT verification (to match child and parent, to check whether
a CRT is self-issued, and to match CRLs and CAs) by calls to the new
`mbedtls_x509_name_cmp_raw()` using the raw ASN.1 data; it passes the
raw buffers introduced in the last commits.
The previous name comparison function mbedtls_x509_name_cmp() is now
both unused and unneeded, and is removed.
The function `mbedtls_x509_sig_alg_gets()` previously needed the
raw ASN.1 OID string even though it is implicit in the PK and MD
parameters.
This commit modifies `mbedtls_x509_sig_alg_gets()` to infer the OID
and remove it from the parameters.
This will be needed for the new X.509 CRT structure which will
likely not store the signature OID.
Care has to be taken to handle the case of RSASSA-PSS correctly,
where the hash algorithm in the OID list is set to MBEDTLS_MD_NONE
because it's only determined by the algorithm parameters.
`mbedtls_x509_name` and `mbedtls_x509_sequence` are dynamically allocated
linked lists that need a loop to free properly. Introduce a static helper
function to do that and use it in `mbedtls_x509_crt_free()`, where the
CRT's issuer and subject names (of type `mbedtls_x509_name`) and the
SubjectAlternativeName and ExtendedKeyUsage extensions (of type
`mbedtls_x509_sequence`) need freeing. Increases code-clarity and saves
a few bytes of flash.
This commit adds an ASN.1 buffer field `pk_raw` to `mbedtls_x509_crt`
which stores the bounds of the raw public key data within an X.509 CRT.
This will be useful in subsequent commits to extract the peer's public
key from its certificate chain.
Introduce MBEDTLS_X509_INFO to indicate the availability of the
mbedtls_x509_*_info() function and closely related APIs. When this is
not defined, also omit name and description from
mbedtls_oid_descriptor_t, and omit OID arrays, macros, and types that
are entirely unused. This saves several KB of code space.
Change-Id: I056312613379890e0d70e1d08c34171287c0aa17
Context:
The existing API `mbedtls_x509_parse_crt_der()` for parsing DER
encoded X.509 CRTs unconditionally makes creates a copy of the
input buffer in RAM. While this comes at the benefit of easy use,
-- specifically: allowing the user to free or re-use the input
buffer right after the call -- it creates a significant memory
overhead, as the CRT is duplicated in memory (at least temporarily).
This might not be tolerable a resource constrained device.
As a remedy, this commit adds a new X.509 API call
`mbedtls_x509_parse_crt_der_nocopy()`
which has the same signature as `mbedtls_x509_parse_crt_der()`
and almost the same semantics, with one difference: The input
buffer must persist and be unmodified for the lifetime of the
established instance of `mbedtls_x509_crt`, that is, until
`mbedtls_x509_crt_free()` is called.
Some functions within the X.509 module return an ASN.1 low level
error code where instead this error code should be wrapped by a
high-level X.509 error code as in the bulk of the module.
Specifically, the following functions are affected:
- mbedtls_x509_get_ext()
- x509_get_version()
- x509_get_uid()
This commit modifies these functions to always return an
X.509 high level error code.
Care has to be taken when adapting `mbetls_x509_get_ext()`:
Currently, the callers `mbedtls_x509_crt_ext()` treat the
return code `MBEDTLS_ERR_ASN1_UNEXPECTED_TAG` specially to
gracefully detect and continue if the extension structure is not
present. Wrapping the ASN.1 error with
`MBEDTLS_ERR_X509_INVALID_EXTENSIONS` and adapting the check
accordingly would mean that an unexpected tag somewhere
down the extension parsing would be ignored by the caller.
The way out of this is the following: Luckily, the extension
structure is always the last field in the surrounding structure,
so if there is some data remaining, it must be an Extension
structure, so we don't need to deal with a tag mismatch gracefully
in the first place.
We may therefore wrap the return code from the initial call to
`mbedtls_asn1_get_tag()` in `mbedtls_x509_get_ext()` by
`MBEDTLS_ERR_X509_INVALID_EXTENSIONS` and simply remove
the special treatment of `MBEDTLS_ERR_ASN1_UNEXPECTED_TAG`
in the callers `x509_crl_get_ext()` and `x509_crt_get_ext()`.
This renders `mbedtls_x509_get_ext()` unsuitable if it ever
happened that an Extension structure is optional and does not
occur at the end of its surrounding structure, but for CRTs
and CRLs, it's fine.
The following tests need to be adapted:
- "TBSCertificate v3, issuerID wrong tag"
The issuerID is optional, so if we look for its presence
but find a different tag, we silently continue and try
parsing the subjectID, and then the extensions. The tag '00'
used in this test doesn't match either of these, and the
previous code would hence return LENGTH_MISMATCH after
unsucessfully trying issuerID, subjectID and Extensions.
With the new code, any data remaining after issuerID and
subjectID _must_ be Extension data, so we fail with
UNEXPECTED_TAG when trying to parse the Extension data.
- "TBSCertificate v3, UIDs, invalid length"
The test hardcodes the expectation of
MBEDTLS_ERR_ASN1_INVALID_LENGTH, which needs to be
wrapped in MBEDTLS_ERR_X509_INVALID_FORMAT now.
Fixes#2431.
When parsing a substructure of an ASN.1 structure, no field within
the substructure must exceed the bounds of the substructure.
Concretely, the `end` pointer passed to the ASN.1 parsing routines
must be updated to point to the end of the substructure while parsing
the latter.
This was previously not the case for the routines
- x509_get_attr_type_and_value(),
- mbedtls_x509_get_crt_ext(),
- mbedtls_x509_get_crl_ext().
These functions kept using the end of the parent structure as the
`end` pointer and would hence allow substructure fields to cross
the substructure boundary. This could lead to successful parsing
of ill-formed X.509 CRTs.
This commit fixes this.
Care has to be taken when adapting `mbedtls_x509_get_crt_ext()`
and `mbedtls_x509_get_crl_ext()`, as the underlying function
`mbedtls_x509_get_ext()` returns `0` if no extensions are present
but doesn't set the variable which holds the bounds of the Extensions
structure in case the latter is present. This commit addresses
this by returning early from `mbedtls_x509_get_crt_ext()` and
`mbedtls_x509_get_crl_ext()` if parsing has reached the end of
the input buffer.
The following X.509 parsing tests need to be adapted:
- "TBSCertificate, issuer two inner set datas"
This test exercises the X.509 CRT parser with a Subject name
which has two empty `AttributeTypeAndValue` structures.
This is supposed to fail with `MBEDTLS_ERR_ASN1_OUT_OF_DATA`
because the parser should attempt to parse the first structure
and fail because of a lack of data. Previously, it failed to
obey the (0-length) bounds of the first AttributeTypeAndValue
structure and would try to interpret the beginning of the second
AttributeTypeAndValue structure as the first field of the first
AttributeTypeAndValue structure, returning an UNEXPECTED_TAG error.
- "TBSCertificate, issuer, no full following string"
This test exercises the parser's behaviour on an AttributeTypeAndValue
structure which contains more data than expected; it should therefore
fail with MBEDTLS_ERR_ASN1_LENGTH_MISMATCH. Because of the missing bounds
check, it previously failed with UNEXPECTED_TAG because it interpreted
the remaining byte in the first AttributeTypeAndValue structure as the
first byte in the second AttributeTypeAndValue structure.
- "SubjectAltName repeated"
This test should exercise two SubjectAltNames extensions in succession,
but a wrong length values makes the second SubjectAltNames extension appear
outside of the Extensions structure. With the new bounds in place, this
therefore fails with a LENGTH_MISMATCH error. This commit adapts the test
data to put the 2nd SubjectAltNames extension inside the Extensions
structure, too.
This commit improves hygiene and formatting of macro definitions
throughout the library. Specifically:
- It adds brackets around parameters to avoid unintended
interpretation of arguments, e.g. due to operator precedence.
- It adds uses of the `do { ... } while( 0 )` idiom for macros that
can be used as commands.
Previously, when checking whether a CRT was revoked through
one of the configured CRLs, the library would only consider
those CRLs whose `issuer` field binary-matches the `subject`
field of the CA that has issued the CRT in question. If those
fields were not binary equivalent, the corresponding CRL was
discarded.
This is not in line with RFC 5280, which demands that the
comparison should be format- and case-insensitive. For example:
- If the same string is once encoded as a `PrintableString` and
another time as a `UTF8String`, they should compare equal.
- If two strings differ only in their choice of upper and lower case
letters, they should compare equal.
This commit fixes this by using the dedicated x509_name_cmp()
function to compare the CRL issuer with the CA subject.
Fixes#1784.
stdio.h was being included both conditionally if MBEDTLS_FS_IO was
defined, and also unconditionally, which made at least one of them
redundant.
This change removes the unconditional inclusion of stdio.h and makes it
conditional on MBEDTLS_PLATFORM_C.
* development-restricted: (578 commits)
Update library version number to 2.13.1
Don't define _POSIX_C_SOURCE in header file
Don't declare and define gmtime()-mutex on Windows platforms
Correct preprocessor guards determining use of gmtime()
Correct documentation of mbedtls_platform_gmtime_r()
Correct typo in documentation of mbedtls_platform_gmtime_r()
Correct POSIX version check to determine presence of gmtime_r()
Improve documentation of mbedtls_platform_gmtime_r()
platform_utils.{c/h} -> platform_util.{c/h}
Don't include platform_time.h if !MBEDTLS_HAVE_TIME
Improve wording of documentation of MBEDTLS_PLATFORM_GMTIME_R_ALT
Fix typo in documentation of MBEDTLS_PLATFORM_GMTIME_R_ALT
Replace 'thread safe' by 'thread-safe' in the documentation
Improve documentation of MBEDTLS_HAVE_TIME_DATE
ChangeLog: Add missing renamings gmtime -> gmtime_r
Improve documentation of MBEDTLS_HAVE_TIME_DATE
Minor documentation improvements
Style: Add missing period in documentation in threading.h
Rename mbedtls_platform_gmtime() to mbedtls_platform_gmtime_r()
Guard decl and use of gmtime mutex by HAVE_TIME_DATE and !GMTIME_ALT
...
Summary of merge conflicts:
include/mbedtls/ecdh.h -> documentation style
include/mbedtls/ecdsa.h -> documentation style
include/mbedtls/ecp.h -> alt style, new error codes, documentation style
include/mbedtls/error.h -> new error codes
library/error.c -> new error codes (generated anyway)
library/ecp.c:
- code of an extracted function was changed
library/ssl_cli.c:
- code addition on one side near code change on the other side
(ciphersuite validation)
library/x509_crt.c -> various things
- top fo file: helper structure added near old zeroize removed
- documentation of find_parent_in()'s signature: improved on one side,
added arguments on the other side
- documentation of find_parent()'s signature: same as above
- verify_chain(): variables initialised later to give compiler an
opportunity to warn us if not initialised on a code path
- find_parent(): funcion structure completely changed, for some reason git
tried to insert a paragraph of the old structure...
- merge_flags_with_cb(): data structure changed, one line was fixed with a
cast to keep MSVC happy, this cast is already in the new version
- in verify_restratable(): adjacent independent changes (function
signature on one line, variable type on the next)
programs/ssl/ssl_client2.c:
- testing for IN_PROGRESS return code near idle() (event-driven):
don't wait for data in the the socket if ECP_IN_PROGRESS
tests/data_files/Makefile: adjacent independent additions
tests/suites/test_suite_ecdsa.data: adjacent independent additions
tests/suites/test_suite_x509parse.data: adjacent independent additions
* development: (1059 commits)
Change symlink to hardlink to avoid permission issues
Fix out-of-tree testing symlinks on Windows
Updated version number to 2.10.0 for release
Add a disabled CMAC define in the no-entropy configuration
Adapt the ARIA test cases for new ECB function
Fix file permissions for ssl.h
Add ChangeLog entry for PR#1651
Fix MicroBlaze register typo.
Fix typo in doc and copy missing warning
Fix edit mistake in cipher_wrap.c
Update CTR doc for the 64-bit block cipher
Update CTR doc for other 128-bit block ciphers
Slightly tune ARIA CTR documentation
Remove double declaration of mbedtls_ssl_list_ciphersuites
Update CTR documentation
Use zeroize function from new platform_util
Move to new header style for ALT implementations
Add ifdef for selftest in header file
Fix typo in comments
Use more appropriate type for local variable
...
- in x509_profile_check_pk_alg
- in x509_profile_check_md_alg
- in x509_profile_check_key
and in ssl_cli.c : unsigned char gets promoted to signed integer
This commit removes all the static occurrencies of the function
mbedtls_zeroize() in each of the individual .c modules. Instead the
function has been moved to utils.h that is included in each of the
modules.
Conflict resolution:
* ChangeLog
* tests/data_files/Makefile: concurrent additions, order irrelevant
* tests/data_files/test-ca.opensslconf: concurrent additions, order irrelevant
* tests/scripts/all.sh: one comment change conflicted with a code
addition. In addition some of the additions in the
iotssl-1381-x509-verify-refactor-restricted branch need support for
keep-going mode, this will be added in a subsequent commit.
library\x509_crt.c(2137): warning C4267: 'function' : conversion from 'size_t' to 'int', possible loss of data
library\x509_crt.c(2265): warning C4267: 'function' : conversion from 'size_t' to 'int', possible loss of data
* development: (557 commits)
Add attribution for #1351 report
Adapt version_features.c
Note incompatibility of truncated HMAC extension in ChangeLog
Add LinkLibraryDependencies to VS2010 app template
Add ChangeLog entry for PR #1382
MD: Make deprecated functions not inline
Add ChangeLog entry for PR #1384
Have Visual Studio handle linking to mbedTLS.lib internally
Mention in ChangeLog that this fixes#1351
Add issue number to ChangeLog
Note in the changelog that this fixes an interoperability issue.
Style fix in ChangeLog
Add ChangeLog entries for PR #1168 and #1362
Add ChangeLog entry for PR #1165
ctr_drbg: Typo fix in the file description comment.
dhm: Fix typo in RFC 5114 constants
tests_suite_pkparse: new PKCS8-v2 keys with PRF != SHA1
data_files/pkcs8-v2: add keys generated with PRF != SHA1
tests/pkcs5/pbkdf2_hmac: extend array to accommodate longer results
tests/pkcs5/pbkdf2_hmac: add unit tests for additional SHA algorithms
...
Fix the x509_get_subject_alt_name() function to not accept invalid
tags. The problem was that the ASN.1 class for tags consists of two
bits. Simply doing bit-wise and of the CONTEXT_SPECIFIC macro with the
input tag has the potential of accepting tag values 0x10 (private)
which would indicate that the certificate has an incorrect format.
I don't think this can cause a crash as the member accessed is in the
beginning of the context, so wouldn't be outside of valid memory if the actual
context was RSA.
Also, the mismatch will be caught later when checking signature, so the cert
chain will be rejected anyway.
Child was almost redundant as it's already saved in ver_chain, except it was
multiplexed to also indicate whether an operation is in progress. This commit
removes it and introduces an explicit state variable instead.
This state can be useful later if we start returning IN_PROGRESS at other
points than find_parent() (for example when checking CRL).
Note that the state goes none -> find_parent and stays there until the context
is free(), as it's only on the first call that nothing was in progress.
The fact that you needed to pass a pointer to mbedtls_ecdsa_restart_ctx (or
that you needed to know the key type of the PK context) was a breach of
abstraction.
Change the API (and callers) now, and the implementation will be changed in
the next commit.
For selection of test cases, see comments added in the commit.
It makes the most sense to test with chains using ECC only, so for the chain
of length 2 we use server10 -> int-ca3 -> int-ca2 and trust int-ca2 directly.
Note: server10.crt was created by copying server10_int3_int-ca2.crt and
manually truncating it to remove the intermediates. That base can now be used
to create derived certs (without or with a chain) in a programmatic way.
This is the first step towards making verify_chain() iterative. While from a
readability point of view the current recursive version is fine, one of the
goals of this refactoring is to prepare for restartable ECC integration, which
will need the explicit stack anyway.
