Re: [PATCH] crypto: keywrap - remove unused keywrap algorithm

From: Herbert Xu
Date: Fri Jan 03 2025 - 20:19:45 EST


Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> The keywrap (kw) algorithm has no in-tree user. It has never had an
> in-tree user, and the patch that added it provided no justification for
> its inclusion. Even use of it via AF_ALG is impossible, as it uses a
> weird calling convention where part of the ciphertext is returned via
> the IV buffer, which is not returned to userspace in AF_ALG.
>
> It's also unclear whether any new code in the kernel that does key
> wrapping would actually use this algorithm. It is controversial in the
> cryptographic community due to having no clearly stated security goal,
> no security proof, poor performance, and only a 64-bit auth tag. Later
> work (https://eprint.iacr.org/2006/221) suggested that the goal is
> deterministic authenticated encryption. But there are now more modern
> algorithms for this, and this is not the same as key wrapping, for which
> a regular AEAD such as AES-GCM usually can be (and is) used instead.
>
> Therefore, remove this unused code.
>
> There were several special cases for this algorithm in the self-tests,
> due to its weird calling convention. Remove those too.
>
> Cc: Stephan Mueller <smueller@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> arch/m68k/configs/amiga_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/apollo_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/atari_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/bvme6000_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/hp300_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/mac_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/multi_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/mvme147_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/mvme16x_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/q40_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/sun3_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/m68k/configs/sun3x_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/mips/configs/decstation_64_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/mips/configs/decstation_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/mips/configs/decstation_r4k_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/s390/configs/debug_defconfig | 1 -
> arch/s390/configs/defconfig | 1 -
> crypto/Kconfig | 8 -
> crypto/Makefile | 1 -
> crypto/keywrap.c | 319 ---------------------
> crypto/testmgr.c | 20 +-
> crypto/testmgr.h | 39 ---
> 22 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 403 deletions(-)
> delete mode 100644 crypto/keywrap.c

Patch applied. Thanks.
--
Email: Herbert Xu <herbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Home Page: http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/
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