Re: [PATCH v3] mm: Add kvfree_sensitive() for freeing sensitive data objects

[Waiman Long]

On 5/1/20 7:22 PM, Eric Biggers wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 04:03:18PM -0400, Waiman Long wrote:
> > For kvmalloc'ed data object that contains sensitive information like
> > cryptographic key, we need to make sure that the buffer is always
> > cleared before freeing it. Using memset() alone for buffer clearing may
> > not provide certainty as the compiler may compile it away. To be sure,
> > the special memzero_explicit() has to be used.
> >
> > This patch introduces a new kvfree_sensitive() for freeing those
> > sensitive data objects allocated by kvmalloc(). The relevnat places
> > where kvfree_sensitive() can be used are modified to use it.
> >
> > Fixes: 4f0882491a14 ("KEYS: Avoid false positive ENOMEM error on key read")
> > Suggested-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Looks good, feel free to add:
>
> Reviewed-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> (I don't really buy the argument that the compiler could compile away memset()
> before kvfree().  But I agree with using memzero_explicit() anyway to make the
> intent explicit.)
>
> I don't see this patch in linux-next yet.  Who is planning to take this patch?
> Presumably David through the keyrings tree, or Andrew through mm?
>
> - Eric
Andrew, would you mind taking this patch into the mm-tree?

Thanks,
Longman