Use the C API

This library exposes a C binding to the high-level TFHE-rs primitives to implement Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) programs.

Setting-up TFHE-rs C API for use in a C program.

TFHE-rs C API can be built on a Unix x86_64 machine using the following command:

RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=native" cargo +nightly build --release --features=x86_64-unix,high-level-c-api -p tfhe

or on a Unix aarch64 machine using the following command:

RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=native" cargo build +nightly --release --features=aarch64-unix,high-level-c-api -p tfhe

The tfhe.h header as well as the static (.a) and dynamic (.so) libtfhe binaries can then be found in "${REPO_ROOT}/target/release/"

The build system needs to be set up so that the C or C++ program links against TFHE-rs C API binaries.

Here is a minimal CMakeLists.txt to do just that:

project(my-project)

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)

set(TFHE_C_API "/path/to/tfhe-rs/binaries/and/header")

include_directories(${TFHE_C_API})
add_library(tfhe STATIC IMPORTED)
set_target_properties(tfhe PROPERTIES IMPORTED_LOCATION ${TFHE_C_API}/libtfhe.a)

if(APPLE)
    find_library(SECURITY_FRAMEWORK Security)
    if (NOT SECURITY_FRAMEWORK)
        message(FATAL_ERROR "Security framework not found")
    endif()
endif()

set(EXECUTABLE_NAME my-executable)
add_executable(${EXECUTABLE_NAME} main.c)
target_include_directories(${EXECUTABLE_NAME} PRIVATE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
target_link_libraries(${EXECUTABLE_NAME} LINK_PUBLIC tfhe m pthread dl)
if(APPLE)
    target_link_libraries(${EXECUTABLE_NAME} LINK_PUBLIC ${SECURITY_FRAMEWORK})
endif()
target_compile_options(${EXECUTABLE_NAME} PRIVATE -Werror)

Commented code of a uint128 subtraction using TFHE-rs C API.

WARNING: The following example does not have proper memory management in the error case to make it easier to fit the code on this page.

To run the example below, the above CMakeLists.txt and main.c files need to be in the same directory. The commands to run are:

# /!\ Be sure to update CMakeLists.txt to give the absolute path to the compiled tfhe library
$ ls
CMakeLists.txt  main.c
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE
...
$ make
...
$ ./my-executable
FHE computation successful!
$

#include <tfhe.h>

#include <assert.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    int ok = 0;
    // Prepare the config builder for the high level API and choose which types to enable
    ConfigBuilder *builder;
    Config *config;

    // Put the builder in a default state without any types enabled
    config_builder_all_disabled(&builder);
    // Enable the uint128 type using the small LWE key for encryption
    config_builder_enable_default_integers_small(&builder);
    // Populate the config
    config_builder_build(builder, &config);

    ClientKey *client_key = NULL;
    ServerKey *server_key = NULL;

    // Generate the keys using the config
    generate_keys(config, &client_key, &server_key);
    // Set the server key for the current thread
    set_server_key(server_key);

    FheUint128 *lhs = NULL;
    FheUint128 *rhs = NULL;
    FheUint128 *result = NULL;
    // A 128-bit unsigned integer containing value: 20 << 64 | 10
    U128 clear_lhs = { .w0 = 10, .w1 = 20 };
    // A 128-bit unsigned integer containing value: 2 << 64 | 1
    U128 clear_rhs = { .w0 = 1, .w1 = 2 };

    ok = fhe_uint128_try_encrypt_with_client_key_u128(clear_lhs, client_key, &lhs);
    assert(ok == 0);

    ok = fhe_uint128_try_encrypt_with_client_key_u128(clear_rhs, client_key, &rhs);
    assert(ok == 0);

    // Compute the subtraction
    ok = fhe_uint128_sub(lhs, rhs, &result);
    assert(ok == 0);

    U128 clear_result;
    // Decrypt
    ok = fhe_uint128_decrypt(result, client_key, &clear_result);
    assert(ok == 0);

    // Here the subtraction allows us to compare each word
    assert(clear_result.w0 == 9);
    assert(clear_result.w1 == 18);

    // Destroy the ciphertexts
    fhe_uint128_destroy(lhs);
    fhe_uint128_destroy(rhs);
    fhe_uint128_destroy(result);

    // Destroy the keys
    client_key_destroy(client_key);
    server_key_destroy(server_key);

    printf("FHE computation successful!\n");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}