NssMPClib - A General-Purpose Secure Multi-Party Computation Library Based on PyTorch

Introduction

NssMPClib is a secure multi-party computation (MPC) library designed specifically for machine learning, offering familiar PyTorch-style APIs that make privacy-preserving machine learning development as straightforward as regular PyTorch programming.

It implements diverse privacy-preserving computation protocols based on both Arithmetic Secret Sharing and Function Secret Sharing.

Key Features

• PyTorch Integration: Leverages PyTorch tensor operations for ease of use
• Torch-like APIs: Familiar APIs for seamless transition from standard PyTorch to secure computation
• Multiple Security Models: Supports both Semi-Honest and Honest-Majority security assumptions
• Flexible Party Configurations: 2-party and 3-party computation setups
• Multiple Secret Sharing Schemes:
  • Additive Secret Sharing (2-party)
  • Replicated Secret Sharing (3-party)
• Function Secret Sharing (FSS) implementations with multiple variants:
• Privacy-Preserving Neural Network Inference: Support for secure model evaluation
• Ring-based Computation: All operations performed on finite rings for cryptographic security

System Requirements

• OS: Linux is the primary supported platform; Windows works for CPU-only installs (and CUDA installs with matching toolchain) but is less tested.
• Python: 3.10 or higher (recommended: 3.12)
• PyTorch: >=2.5.0 (recommended: 2.7.1 or newer compatible release)
• C/C++ compiler: required because torchcsprng always builds a native extension. On Linux: gcc/g++ (e.g. sudo apt-get install build-essential). On Windows: install Build Tools for Visual Studio with the "Desktop development with C++" workload.
• CUDA toolkit: optional, only for GPU acceleration. Match the toolkit version to torch.version.cuda.

Installation

NssMPClib bundles CUDA extensions and CUTLASS submodules. The included advice script inspects your environment (Python, PyTorch, CUDA, nvcc, GPU, submodules) and reports whether the machine is ready to install. It is read-only and never installs anything itself; when something is missing, it names the required package or version instead of trying to generate platform-specific commands.

Step 1: Clone with submodules

git clone --recursive https://github.com/XidianNSS/NssMPClib.git
cd NssMPClib

If you cloned without --recursive, run git submodule update --init --recursive.

Step 2: Check your environment

python3 scripts/installation_advice.py

If prerequisites (PyTorch, matching CUDA Toolkit / nvcc, submodules) are missing, the script prints a FAIL item with the required version or condition. Apply the fix that matches your OS/package manager and rerun the script until the diagnosis passes or only reports intentional warnings.

Step 3: Install NssMPClib

Once the check passes, the standard editable install is:

pip install -e . --no-build-isolation

Because --no-build-isolation reuses your environment instead of bootstrapping a clean one, setuptools and wheel must already be installed there. The advice script flags it explicitly if either is missing; install them with pip install --upgrade setuptools wheel and rerun.

• CUDA torch + matching nvcc + GPU visible: setup.py auto-detects CUDA_HOME (by scanning /usr/local/cuda-* for the nvcc release matching torch.version.cuda) and TORCH_CUDA_ARCH_LIST (from visible GPUs), then builds the CUTLASS and CUDA torchcsprng extensions.
• CPU-only torch: setup.py skips the CUTLASS extension (since torch.version.cuda is unset) and csprng/setup.py skips its CUDA build (since torch.cuda.is_available() is False), so the same command above works as-is — no env vars needed.

The NSSMPC_SKIP_CUTLASS=1 NSSMPC_SKIP_CSPRNG_CUDA=1 variant is only needed in edge cases (CUDA torch installed but nvcc missing / no GPU / broken toolchain); the advice script reports when those skip flags are already part of the selected installation path.

Step 4: Generate cryptographic parameters

python3 scripts/offline_parameter_generation.py

Note: Parameters are saved to ~/NssMPClib/data/ (32-bit in data/32/, 64-bit in data/64/).

Quick Start: 2-Party Computation Example

Party 0 - party_0.py:

from nssmpc import Party2PC, PartyRuntime, SEMI_HONEST, SecretTensor
import torch

party = Party2PC(0, SEMI_HONEST)
with PartyRuntime(party):
    party.online()
    x = torch.rand([10, 10])
    share_x = SecretTensor(tensor=x)
    result = share_x.recon().convert_to_real_field()
    print("Server result:", result)

Party 1 - party_1.py:

from nssmpc import Party2PC, PartyRuntime, SEMI_HONEST, SecretTensor

client = Party2PC(1, SEMI_HONEST)
with PartyRuntime(client):
    client.online()
    share_x = SecretTensor(src_id=0)
    result = share_x.recon().convert_to_real_field()
    print("Client result:", result)

Execution:

# Terminal 1: Start server
python party_0.py

# Terminal 2: Start client (in separate terminal)
python party_1.py

Running Built-in Examples

1. Arithmetic Secret Sharing (2-Party)

cd tests/primitives/secret_sharing/
# Terminal 1:
python -m unittest test_ass_p0.py
# Terminal 2:
python -m unittest test_ass_p1.py

2. Neural Network Inference (2-Party)

cd tests/application/neural_network/2pc/
# Terminal 1:
python neural_network_P0.py
# Terminal 2:
python neural_network_P1.py

3. Replicated Secret Sharing (3-Party)

cd tests/primitives/secret_sharing/
# Terminal 1: python -m unittest test_rss_p0.py
# Terminal 2: python -m unittest test_rss_p1.py  
# Terminal 3: python -m unittest test_rss_p2.py

Configuration

Configure the library in nssmpc/config/configs.json:

{
    "BIT_LEN": 32,           // Ring size: 32 or 64 bits
    "DEVICE": "cuda",        // Compute device: "cpu" or "cuda"
    "DTYPE": "float",        // Data type: "float" or "int"
    "SCALE_BIT": 8,          // Fixed-point scaling bits
    "DEBUG_LEVEL": 2         // Debug level: 0-Secure, 1-Testing, 2-Development
}

DEBUG_LEVEL Details:

• 0 (Secure Mode): Highest security. All pre-generated keys are destroyed after use, strictly following the One-Time Pad principle.
• 1 (Testing Mode): Performance-optimized. Inputs with the same dimensions reuse the same set of keys, facilitating performance testing and batch operations.
• 2 (Development Mode): Convenient for development. Uses a single globally-shared pre-generated key for all operations. ONLY for non-sensitive development environments.

Usage Scenarios:

• DEBUG_LEVEL: 0 - Production environments with real sensitive data
• DEBUG_LEVEL: 1 - Performance testing environments, evaluating performance across different input sizes
• DEBUG_LEVEL: 2 - Protocol development environments, quickly verifying functional correctness

Project Structure

NssMPClib/
├── nssmpc/                   # Main library source
│   ├── application/          # Privacy-preserving applications
│   ├── config/              # Configuration files
│   ├── infra/               # Infrastructure components
│   ├── primitives/          # Cryptographic primitives
│   ├── protocols/           # MPC protocols
│   └── runtime/             # Runtime coordination
├── data/                     # Precomputed cryptographic parameters
├── tests/                   # Test suite and examples
├── tutorials/               # Detailed tutorials
└── scripts/                 # Utility scripts

Precomputed Cryptographic Parameters

The library uses pre-generated parameters for efficiency. Key types include:

Parameter Type	Purpose	Typical Use
AssMulTriples	Multiplication in Arithmetic Secret Sharing	2-party computation
BooleanTriples	AND operations in Boolean Secret Sharing	Secure comparison
RssMulTriples	Multiplication in Replicated Secret Sharing	3-party computation
DICFKey	Distributed Interval Containment Function	Secure comparison
GeLUKey	Gaussian Error Linear Unit activation	Neural networks

and so on...

Tutorials

Detailed tutorials are available in the tutorials/ directory:

Tutorial	Description
Tutorial 0	Library setup and configuration
Tutorial 1	2-party secure computation
Tutorial 2	3-party secure computation
Tutorial 3	Privacy-preserving neural network inference
Tutorial 4	Advanced internal components

Best Practices

1. Separate Processes: Each party must run in separate terminals
2. Use Runtime Context: Always wrap operations in with PartyRuntime(party):
3. Parameter Management: Generate parameters before first use
4. Security Selection: Use DEBUG_LEVEL=0 for production, DEBUG_LEVEL=2 for development

Troubleshooting

Common Issues:

1. "Parameters not found" Error:

   python3 scripts/offline_parameter_generation.py
   

2. Port Already in Use: Change base port in configs.json or kill existing processes.

3. CUDA Errors: Set DEVICE: "cpu" in config or check CUDA installation.

4. Install-time CUDA / submodule errors (e.g. RuntimeError: The detected CUDA version (X.Y) mismatches ..., or fatal error: cutlass/...: No such file or directory): Rerun the advice script. It will tell you whether the missing requirement is a matching CUDA Toolkit / nvcc version, a compatible PyTorch build, missing submodules, or an intentional CPU/skip-CUDA path:

   python3 scripts/installation_advice.py
   

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

Citation

If you use NssMPClib in your research, please cite:

@software{nssmpclib,
  title = {NssMPClib: Secure Multi-Party Computation Library},
  author = {Xidian University NSS Lab},
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://github.com/XidianNSS/NssMPClib}
}

License

NssMPClib is released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Contact

• Email: xidiannss@gmail.com
• GitHub: https://github.com/XidianNSS/NssMPClib
• Issues: https://github.com/XidianNSS/NssMPClib/issues

Acknowledgements

Maintained by the Network and System Security (NSS) Laboratory at Xidian University.