Crypto#secureCompare : use the primitive type as the return value could not be null

[benbenw]

Summary

Fix Crypto#secureCompare signature to use the primitive type as the return value could not be null

Checklist

• [X] Added changelog entry
• [X] Ran unit tests (mvn verify -DskipITs)

[billwerges]

Hi @benbenw,

Thanks for opening this PR. Since this change modifies the return type of a publicly visible method, we won't be able to merge this until we release the next major version of the project.

[benbenw]

no pb but due to java type boxing it should be backward compatible to the callers

[crookedneighbor]

@benbenw sorry for the long delay on this. I'm just curious about what scenarios the return type could be null here. I see 2 places we return:

An early return of false:

        return false;

And a final return where it asserts on the value of result:

        return result == 0;

In what instances could this ever return null?

[hollabaq86]

for internal tracking, ticket 666

[benbenw]

@benbenw sorry for the long delay on this. I'm just curious about what scenarios the return type could be null here. I see 2 places we return:

An early return of false:

        return false;

And a final return where it asserts on the value of result:

        return result == 0;

In what instances could this ever return null?

It could not return null that what this issue is about ! As stated in the description :
Fix Crypto#secureCompare signature to use the primitive type as the return value could not be null