Re: [PATCH] lib/crypto: Add FIPS pre-operational self-test for SHA algorithms

[Eric Biggers]

On Mon, Oct 06, 2025 at 10:03:44PM -0500, Joachim Vandersmissen wrote:
> Hi Eric,
> 
> It's a very minor change but I suggest not using "pre-operational
> self-test". That term specifically refers to a different type of self-test
> in FIPS 140-3 and it could lead to some confusion here. "cryptographic
> algorithm self-test" may be better (if you want to be formal), or just
> "self-test" or "known-answer test".
> 

I don't think that's quite correct.  FIPS 140-3 divides self-tests into
two categories, pre-operational (executed unconditionally at start-up
time) and conditional (executed only when conditions are met, such as an
algorithm being used for the first time).  This patch chooses the first
option, pre-operational.

We could just call them algorithm self-tests if we don't want to be
specific as to what time they run at, though.

- Eric