Single-Block Symmetric Ciphers [CIPHER]

Single-Block Symmetric Ciphers [CIPHER]
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Registration specifics
Cipher Definition With struct cipher_alg

Example of transformations: aes, arc4, ...

This section describes the simplest of all transformation implementations, that being the CIPHER type used for symmetric ciphers. The CIPHER type is used for transformations which operate on exactly one block at a time and there are no dependencies between blocks at all.

Registration specifics

The registration of [CIPHER] algorithm is specific in that struct crypto_alg field .cra_type is empty. The .cra_u.cipher has to be filled in with proper callbacks to implement this transformation.

See struct cipher_alg below.

Cipher Definition With struct cipher_alg

Struct cipher_alg defines a single block cipher.

Here are schematics of how these functions are called when operated from other part of the kernel. Note that the .cia_setkey() call might happen before or after any of these schematics happen, but must not happen during any of these are in-flight.

         KEY ---.    PLAINTEXT ---.
                v                 v
          .cia_setkey() -> .cia_encrypt()
                                  |
                                  '-----> CIPHERTEXT

Please note that a pattern where .cia_setkey() is called multiple times is also valid:


  KEY1 --.    PLAINTEXT1 --.         KEY2 --.    PLAINTEXT2 --.
         v                 v                v                 v
   .cia_setkey() -> .cia_encrypt() -> .cia_setkey() -> .cia_encrypt()
                           |                                  |
                           '---> CIPHERTEXT1                  '---> CIPHERTEXT2