ERC1271 versioning to maintain signature validity

Primordial Soup
, ,
1

Intro

Off-chain ERC1271 Signatures are not guaranteed to be valid in the future, because the isValidSignature function can be changed.

Problem

This creates a problem for any application that would like to use signatures to prove validity of statements and also support smart accounts.

Simple example of signers changing causing the validity of a signature to change:

image
image1898×818 148 KB

From Peter Robinson’s Ethereum Engineering Group presentation

Proposal

Standard way of updating isValidSignature function

I propose we create a standard way for updating the isValidSignature function so that we can keep track of previous versions.

One possible solution is to store in state previous ERC1271 verifiers and timestamps, which can be updated by calling an updateIsValidSignature function. Then a wasValidSignature function can be called and reference previous verifiers, when determining if a signature was valid.

The way state is stored can be external to this standard, but could look something like this:

State:

// create a VerifierStruct which includes a timestamp and ERC1271 verifier
// keep an array of VerifierStructs that updateIsValidSignature will push to

struct VerifierStruct {
  timestamp: uint64;
  verifier: ERC1271; // ERC1271 contract address
}

VerifierStruct[] public verifiers = [];

OR

// Keep a mapping of timestamps and ERC1271 verifiers that updateIsValidSignature will add to

mapping(uint64 => ERC1271) public verifiers;

Functions:

updateIsValidSignature:
@dev pushes to the array a new contract address with a current timestamp
@param _contract An ERC1271 contract address
function updateIsValidSignature(address _contract) external;

wasValidSignature:
@dev looks up which contract to use based on timestamp, and calls appropriate function
@return The bytes4 magic value 0x1626ba7e when function passes
@param _timestamp Timestamp to check for
@param _hash Hash of the data to be signed
@param _signature Signature byte array associated with _hash
@param _data arbitrary extra data used for verification
function wasValidSignature(
    unit64 _timestamp,
    bytes32 _hash,
    bytes memory _signature,
    bytes _data
) public view returns(bytes4);

Events:

event ERC1271CheckerUpdated(address indexed newChecker)

I would love feedback and suggestions on this and other possible solutions for this problem. Thanks @sina for your help on this design so far.

1 Like