[Ethereum] Web3.js : eth.sign() vs eth.accounts.sign() — producing different signatures

web3js

I'm getting to grips with web3.js and have noticed an unusual issue with signing data.

When I sign a string with the web3.eth.sign() method, I am getting a different signature than if I use web3.eth.account.sign(). Note this latter method takes the private key as an argument.

I'm using the the latest web3.js beta and ganache. The test public address & private key I'm using in the examples below are: 

address: 0x627306090abaB3A6e1400e9345bC60c78a8BEf57
pkey: 0xc87509a1c067bbde78beb793e6fa76530b6382a4c0241e5e4a9ec0a0f44dc0d3
//note 0x prefix

Code:

const signTest = async function(){

    // Using eth.sign()

    let accounts = await web3.eth.getAccounts();
    let msg = "Some data"

    let prefix = "\x19Ethereum Signed Message:\n" + msg.length
    let msgHash1 = web3.utils.sha3(prefix+msg)

    let sig1 = await web3.eth.sign(msg, accounts[0]);


    // Using eth.accounts.sign() - returns an object

    let privateKey = "c87509a1c067bbde78beb793e6fa76530b6382a4c0241e5e4a9ec0a0f44dc0d3"

    let sigObj = await web3.eth.accounts.sign(msg, privateKey)
    let msgHash2 = sigObj.messageHash;

    let sig2 = sigObj.signature;

}

sig 1 and sig 2 do not match – the last 4 chars are different.

sig1: 0xb3bd48482d2c13a1d1f3bba070fb9de9375ffc61347504fb4e3aed903fbc073e65588de1207ed716e0e439bfa527d44ea13a28ba08f79ac025a0e42b683967ec00
sig2: 0xb3bd48482d2c13a1d1f3bba070fb9de9375ffc61347504fb4e3aed903fbc073e65588de1207ed716e0e439bfa527d44ea13a28ba08f79ac025a0e42b683967ec1b

However, note both signatures recover the correct account:

    let whoSigned1 = await web3.eth.accounts.recover(msgHash1, sig1)
    let whoSigned2 = await web3.eth.accounts.recover(sigObj)

Is this behaviour normal or could it lead to problems?

Thanks

Best Answer

Likely web3.eth.accounts sign method is encoding the chainId as the parameter V while web3.eth.sign (an older implementation) is not. This was an update wrt to EIP 155. More info: (https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-155.md)

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