Crate ic_vectors 

Loading test vectors that are not in the repository.

An algorithm is registered experimental rather than available when it is implemented and nothing has checked it against values produced by something other than itself. That is not a code problem. It is a files problem, and this crate exists so that closing it needs no code at all: drop a vector file in the right place and the tests start checking against it.

It has worked for every algorithm that needed it. ML-KEM-768 and ML-DSA-65 were closed by NIST’s ACVP files and AES-GCM-SIV by RFC 8452 appendix C, and nothing in the registry is experimental now. What remains is the mechanism, for whatever is added next. Without one they skip, loudly enough to be visible and quietly enough not to fail a build that was never promised the file.

Where the files go

testvectors/<name>.json, relative to the workspace root, or wherever IC_TEST_VECTORS points. The format is deliberately not raw ACVP:

{
  "algorithm": "aes-kw",
  "source": "RFC 3394 section 4.1",
  "cases": [
    { "key": "000102...", "pt": "001122...", "ct": "1fa68b..." }
  ]
}

Every field is a hex string, and which fields a case needs is up to the test reading it. ACVP’s own files nest differently per algorithm and carry a great deal that is irrelevant here, so converting is a few lines of jq rather than a parser this crate has to keep up with. testvectors/README.md records the mapping for each algorithm that wants one.

Why the skip is loud

A test that silently passes when its input is missing is worse than no test: it reports success for work nobody did. VectorFile::load returns None and the callers print what they were looking for, so an absent file shows up in the output rather than in nothing at all.

Structs

VectorFile

A loaded vector file.

Functions

hex

Render bytes as lowercase hex, for comparison messages.

hex_field

Decode a hex field from a case, panicking with the field name on failure.

optional_hex_field

An optional hex field.

vectors_dir

The directory vector files are read from.