feat(proto)!: Don't require a HKDF construction in HandshakeTokenKey

[matheus23]

Description

This is a pure refactor of the HandshakeTokenKey trait, this PR doesn't change any behavior.

This essentially merges trait AeadKey (with adjustments) into HandshakeTokenKey.

The aead_from_hkdf construction can be computed inside AeadKey::open and AeadKey::seal, and this is always done together, so there's no need to do both things together.

This is part of n0-computer/iroh#3978

Motivation

Merging these things in the HandshakeTokenKey trait reduces the amount of traits and makes it possible to implement HandshakeTokenKey without an HKDF construction, e.g. by using random nonces with XChaCha (which is completely safe and doesn't require weird nonce tricks).

Breaking Changes

• Removed the noq_proto::crypto::AeadKey trait. It essentially was moved into noq_proto::crypto::HandshakeTokenKey.
• Adjusted the signatures of seal and open. They no longer require you to process additional_data (AAD), because this is never used in Quinn.

Notes & open questions

I intentionally kept this a pure refactor.
It's worth considering exchanging the cryptography used here with something that's not HKDF+AES-GCM with zero nonces, but that can be another PR.
My plan for now is to do the opinionated cryptography changes in iroh instead of in noq.

[github-actions]

Documentation for this PR has been generated and is available at: https://n0-computer.github.io/noq/pr/480/docs/noq/

Last updated: 2026-03-06T12:21:47Z

[github-actions]

Performance Comparison Report

c05364bf18a6ee09df317b3c6b25fb3343dba5e7 - artifacts

Raw Benchmarks (localhost)

Scenario	noq	upstream	Delta	CPU (avg/max)
large-single	5750.3 Mbps	7953.2 Mbps	-27.7%	93.5% / 98.3%
medium-concurrent	5956.3 Mbps	7621.7 Mbps	-21.9%	92.9% / 97.7%
medium-single	4111.9 Mbps	4469.5 Mbps	-8.0%	95.5% / 109.0%
small-concurrent	3764.1 Mbps	5125.8 Mbps	-26.6%	96.3% / 109.0%
small-single	3539.5 Mbps	4758.4 Mbps	-25.6%	92.7% / 109.0%

Netsim Benchmarks (network simulation)

Condition	noq	upstream	Delta
ideal	2933.0 Mbps	3974.1 Mbps	-26.2%
lan	776.3 Mbps	808.2 Mbps	-3.9%
lossy	69.8 Mbps	55.9 Mbps	+25.0%
wan	83.8 Mbps	83.8 Mbps	~0%

Summary

noq is 22.6% slower on average

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e86b3ea991dca4018e63db27f281e60a4e96d568 - artifacts

Raw Benchmarks (localhost)

Scenario	noq	upstream	Delta	CPU (avg/max)
large-single	5407.0 Mbps	7993.9 Mbps	-32.4%	94.4% / 99.8%
medium-concurrent	5341.3 Mbps	7905.3 Mbps	-32.4%	91.7% / 96.8%
medium-single	4214.9 Mbps	4705.2 Mbps	-10.4%	84.7% / 95.2%
small-concurrent	3694.7 Mbps	5238.9 Mbps	-29.5%	93.1% / 100.0%
small-single	3382.7 Mbps	4719.1 Mbps	-28.3%	97.2% / 134.0%

Netsim Benchmarks (network simulation)

Condition	noq	upstream	Delta
ideal	N/A	3896.7 Mbps	N/A
lan	N/A	810.3 Mbps	N/A
lossy	N/A	69.8 Mbps	N/A
wan	N/A	83.8 Mbps	N/A

Summary

noq is 27.9% slower on average