This issue is compounded by widely used tools:

• •Unspecified Defaults: OpenSSL and the Node.js Crypto API allow signing without specifying a salt length.
• •Version Variance: When signing without a specification, these tools use a default value that can vary by version.
• •Non-Standard Verification: OpenSSL uses a non-standard detection approach to verify these signatures.

This behavior causes significant interoperability problems for any cryptographic scheme built on these underspecified foundations.

We successfully reintroduced the feature by ensuring strict safety and correctness:

• •Constant-Time Execution: We engineered the implementation to run in constant time, preventing side-channel timing attacks.
• •Explicit API: We created an intentional API function to handle this. It avoids "background magic," requiring the developer to opt-in explicitly.
• •Context & Testing: We documented exactly when this feature is required and provided unit tests to demonstrate its correct usage.