Invalid proof for circuits more than half the size of the ptau

[chancehudson]

Summary of Bug

Apologies if this is not the correct repo for this.

I'm proving circom circuits on the bls12-381 curve using ark-groth16. I've run into a bug where ark-groth16 generates invalid proofs for zkeys that are built against powers of tau ceremonies that are not at least twice as big.

e.g. i have a circuit with 2500 constraints. I build the zkey using a ptau with 2^12 powers. snarkjs generates valid proofs, ark-groth16 generates invalid proofs. I build the same circuit against a ptau with 2^13 powers and both snarkjs and ark-groth16 generate valid proofs.

I've confirmed that the proofs generated by ark-groth16 are invalid in snarkjs as well. This bug does not exist for the alt_bn128 curve.

I'm using the R1CS QAP reduction in ark-circom.

I know there's lots of places where the inconsistency could come from. I wanted to post here to see if anyone has ideas off the top of their head.

Version

[email protected]

Steps to Reproduce

Build a circuit over the bls12-381 curve with N constraints and < 2*N ptau powers. Use the R1CS QAP mapping in ark-circom to generate a proof. Try to validate the proof.

This is implemented here, the relevant zkeys/witness logic is committed in the same repo. I'll break this into a minimal repro example if there's any interest.