What are error handling patterns for CryptoKit in Swift?

Error handling is a crucial aspect of using CryptoKit in Swift, especially when dealing with cryptographic functions that can fail due to invalid inputs or other unexpected conditions. This guide outlines common patterns for managing errors while ensuring security and robustness in your applications.

Using Swift's Error Protocol

CryptoKit methods often throw errors that conform to Swift's Error protocol. You can handle these errors using do-catch blocks, allowing your program to respond appropriately if something goes wrong.

do { let key = try SecureEnclave.P256.KeyAgreement.PrivateKey() // Perform operations that might throw an error } catch { print("Error occurred: \(error.localizedDescription)") }

Handling Specific Errors

When working with CryptoKit, it's good practice to handle specific errors to provide more clarity on what went wrong:

do { let key = try SecureEnclave.P256.KeyAgreement.PrivateKey() // Perform operations here } catch let error as CryptoKitError { switch error { case .unsupported: print("The specified operation is not supported.") case .invalidKey: print("The key you provided is invalid.") default: print("Unexpected error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } catch { print("Error occurred: \(error.localizedDescription)") }

Using Result Type

Another pattern is to use the Result type for functions that perform CryptoKit operations. This is particularly useful for returning either the success value or an error without throwing:

func performCryptoOperation() -> Result { do { let key = try SecureEnclave.P256.KeyAgreement.PrivateKey() // Proceed with the operation return .success(data) } catch { return .failure(error) } } let result = performCryptoOperation() switch result { case .success(let data): print("Operation succeeded with data: \(data)") case .failure(let error): print("Operation failed: \(error.localizedDescription)") }

CryptoKit Swift Error Handling SecureEnclave Cryptography