[PATCH v2 4/8] crypto: qce - Fix CTR-AES for partial block requests

From: Bartosz Golaszewski

Date: Mon Jun 15 2026 - 11:57:26 EST


From: Kuldeep Singh <kuldeep.singh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

In CTR mode, the IV acts as the initial counter block.
APer NIST SP 800-38A, after a CTR mode operation the next unused counter
value is:

IV_next = IV_in + ceil(cryptlen / AES_BLOCK_SIZE)

The skcipher requires req->iv to hold this updated counter on
completion, ensuring chained requests produce correct results.

Referring to Crypto6.0 documentation, Section 2.2.5 says:
"The count value increments automatically once per block of data (in
AES, a block is 16 bytes) based on the value in the
CRYPTO_ENCR_CNTR_MASK registers."

QCE increments internal counter register once per full 16-byte block(for
ctr-aes) is processed. In case of partial request length, the hardware
uses the current counter to generate keystreams but does not increment
the counter register afterwards. So the counter value written in
CRYPTO_ENCR_CNTRn_IVn later once read by software is one less than the
expected value.

Crypto selftest framework capture this scenario with test vector
4 comprising of a 499-byte payload (31 full blocks + 3 partial bytes).
Error:
[ 5.606169] alg: skcipher: ctr-aes-qce encryption test failed (wrong output IV) on test vector 4, cfg="in-place (one sglist)"
[ 5.606176] 00000000: e7 82 1d b8 53 11 ac 47 e2 7d 18 d6 71 0c a7 61
[ 5.606192] alg: self-tests for ctr(aes) using ctr-aes-qce failed (rc=-22)
Expected iv_out: 0x62 (iv_in + 32)
Obtained iv_out: 0x61 (iv_in + 31, partial block not counted)

To fix this, just increase the counter value for partial block requests
by 1 and for the full block size requests, don't take any action as
expected value is already returned by the hardware.

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fixes: 3e806a12d10a ("crypto: qce - update the skcipher IV")
Signed-off-by: Kuldeep Singh <kuldeep.singh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Bartosz Golaszewski <bartosz.golaszewski@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/crypto/qce/skcipher.c | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/crypto/qce/skcipher.c b/drivers/crypto/qce/skcipher.c
index 68b83e3ae088ae42a7fb2a2f0c2e132acf62e849..379b45d2cd952a39c387e84af71238b53f7737e9 100644
--- a/drivers/crypto/qce/skcipher.c
+++ b/drivers/crypto/qce/skcipher.c
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
#include <linux/types.h>
#include <linux/errno.h>
#include <crypto/aes.h>
+#include <crypto/algapi.h>
#include <crypto/internal/des.h>
#include <crypto/internal/skcipher.h>

@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ static void qce_skcipher_done(void *data)
struct qce_device *qce = tmpl->qce;
struct qce_result_dump *result_buf = qce->dma.result_buf;
enum dma_data_direction dir_src, dir_dst;
+ unsigned int blocks;
u32 status;
int error;
bool diff_dst;
@@ -57,7 +59,21 @@ static void qce_skcipher_done(void *data)
if (error < 0)
dev_dbg(qce->dev, "skcipher operation error (%x)\n", status);

- memcpy(rctx->iv, result_buf->encr_cntr_iv, rctx->ivsize);
+ if (IS_CTR(rctx->flags)) {
+ /*
+ * QCE hardware does not increment the counter for a partial
+ * final block. Increment it in software so that iv_out
+ * reflects the correct next counter value expected by the CTR
+ * mode.
+ */
+ blocks = DIV_ROUND_UP(rctx->cryptlen, AES_BLOCK_SIZE);
+
+ while (blocks--)
+ crypto_inc(rctx->iv, rctx->ivsize);
+ } else {
+ memcpy(rctx->iv, result_buf->encr_cntr_iv, rctx->ivsize);
+ }
+
qce->async_req_done(tmpl->qce, error);
}


--
2.47.3