1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
3	"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>
4
5<book id="KernelCryptoAPI">
6 <bookinfo>
7  <title>Linux Kernel Crypto API</title>
8
9  <authorgroup>
10   <author>
11    <firstname>Stephan</firstname>
12    <surname>Mueller</surname>
13    <affiliation>
14     <address>
15      <email>smueller@chronox.de</email>
16     </address>
17    </affiliation>
18   </author>
19   <author>
20    <firstname>Marek</firstname>
21    <surname>Vasut</surname>
22    <affiliation>
23     <address>
24      <email>marek@denx.de</email>
25     </address>
26    </affiliation>
27   </author>
28  </authorgroup>
29
30  <copyright>
31   <year>2014</year>
32   <holder>Stephan Mueller</holder>
33  </copyright>
34
35
36  <legalnotice>
37   <para>
38     This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
39     it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
40     License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
41     version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
42     version.
43   </para>
44
45   <para>
46     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
47     useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
48     warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
49     See the GNU General Public License for more details.
50   </para>
51
52   <para>
53     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
54     License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
55     Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
56     MA 02111-1307 USA
57   </para>
58
59   <para>
60     For more details see the file COPYING in the source
61     distribution of Linux.
62   </para>
63  </legalnotice>
64 </bookinfo>
65
66 <toc></toc>
67
68 <chapter id="Intro">
69  <title>Kernel Crypto API Interface Specification</title>
70
71   <sect1><title>Introduction</title>
72
73    <para>
74     The kernel crypto API offers a rich set of cryptographic ciphers as
75     well as other data transformation mechanisms and methods to invoke
76     these. This document contains a description of the API and provides
77     example code.
78    </para>
79
80    <para>
81     To understand and properly use the kernel crypto API a brief
82     explanation of its structure is given. Based on the architecture,
83     the API can be separated into different components. Following the
84     architecture specification, hints to developers of ciphers are
85     provided. Pointers to the API function call  documentation are
86     given at the end.
87    </para>
88
89    <para>
90     The kernel crypto API refers to all algorithms as "transformations".
91     Therefore, a cipher handle variable usually has the name "tfm".
92     Besides cryptographic operations, the kernel crypto API also knows
93     compression transformations and handles them the same way as ciphers.
94    </para>
95
96    <para>
97     The kernel crypto API serves the following entity types:
98
99     <itemizedlist>
100      <listitem>
101       <para>consumers requesting cryptographic services</para>
102      </listitem>
103      <listitem>
104      <para>data transformation implementations (typically ciphers)
105       that can be called by consumers using the kernel crypto
106       API</para>
107      </listitem>
108     </itemizedlist>
109    </para>
110
111    <para>
112     This specification is intended for consumers of the kernel crypto
113     API as well as for developers implementing ciphers. This API
114     specification, however, does not discuss all API calls available
115     to data transformation implementations (i.e. implementations of
116     ciphers and other transformations (such as CRC or even compression
117     algorithms) that can register with the kernel crypto API).
118    </para>
119
120    <para>
121     Note: The terms "transformation" and cipher algorithm are used
122     interchangably.
123    </para>
124   </sect1>
125
126   <sect1><title>Terminology</title>
127    <para>
128     The transformation implementation is an actual code or interface
129     to hardware which implements a certain transformation with precisely
130     defined behavior.
131    </para>
132
133    <para>
134     The transformation object (TFM) is an instance of a transformation
135     implementation. There can be multiple transformation objects
136     associated with a single transformation implementation. Each of
137     those transformation objects is held by a crypto API consumer or
138     another transformation. Transformation object is allocated when a
139     crypto API consumer requests a transformation implementation.
140     The consumer is then provided with a structure, which contains
141     a transformation object (TFM).
142    </para>
143
144    <para>
145     The structure that contains transformation objects may also be
146     referred to as a "cipher handle". Such a cipher handle is always
147     subject to the following phases that are reflected in the API calls
148     applicable to such a cipher handle:
149    </para>
150
151    <orderedlist>
152     <listitem>
153      <para>Initialization of a cipher handle.</para>
154     </listitem>
155     <listitem>
156      <para>Execution of all intended cipher operations applicable
157      for the handle where the cipher handle must be furnished to
158      every API call.</para>
159     </listitem>
160     <listitem>
161      <para>Destruction of a cipher handle.</para>
162     </listitem>
163    </orderedlist>
164
165    <para>
166     When using the initialization API calls, a cipher handle is
167     created and returned to the consumer. Therefore, please refer
168     to all initialization API calls that refer to the data
169     structure type a consumer is expected to receive and subsequently
170     to use. The initialization API calls have all the same naming
171     conventions of crypto_alloc_*.
172    </para>
173
174    <para>
175     The transformation context is private data associated with
176     the transformation object.
177    </para>
178   </sect1>
179  </chapter>
180
181  <chapter id="Architecture"><title>Kernel Crypto API Architecture</title>
182   <sect1><title>Cipher algorithm types</title>
183    <para>
184     The kernel crypto API provides different API calls for the
185     following cipher types:
186
187     <itemizedlist>
188      <listitem><para>Symmetric ciphers</para></listitem>
189      <listitem><para>AEAD ciphers</para></listitem>
190      <listitem><para>Message digest, including keyed message digest</para></listitem>
191      <listitem><para>Random number generation</para></listitem>
192      <listitem><para>User space interface</para></listitem>
193     </itemizedlist>
194    </para>
195   </sect1>
196
197   <sect1><title>Ciphers And Templates</title>
198    <para>
199     The kernel crypto API provides implementations of single block
200     ciphers and message digests. In addition, the kernel crypto API
201     provides numerous "templates" that can be used in conjunction
202     with the single block ciphers and message digests. Templates
203     include all types of block chaining mode, the HMAC mechanism, etc.
204    </para>
205
206    <para>
207     Single block ciphers and message digests can either be directly
208     used by a caller or invoked together with a template to form
209     multi-block ciphers or keyed message digests.
210    </para>
211
212    <para>
213     A single block cipher may even be called with multiple templates.
214     However, templates cannot be used without a single cipher.
215    </para>
216
217    <para>
218     See /proc/crypto and search for "name". For example:
219
220     <itemizedlist>
221      <listitem><para>aes</para></listitem>
222      <listitem><para>ecb(aes)</para></listitem>
223      <listitem><para>cmac(aes)</para></listitem>
224      <listitem><para>ccm(aes)</para></listitem>
225      <listitem><para>rfc4106(gcm(aes))</para></listitem>
226      <listitem><para>sha1</para></listitem>
227      <listitem><para>hmac(sha1)</para></listitem>
228      <listitem><para>authenc(hmac(sha1),cbc(aes))</para></listitem>
229     </itemizedlist>
230    </para>
231
232    <para>
233     In these examples, "aes" and "sha1" are the ciphers and all
234     others are the templates.
235    </para>
236   </sect1>
237
238   <sect1><title>Synchronous And Asynchronous Operation</title>
239    <para>
240     The kernel crypto API provides synchronous and asynchronous
241     API operations.
242    </para>
243
244    <para>
245     When using the synchronous API operation, the caller invokes
246     a cipher operation which is performed synchronously by the
247     kernel crypto API. That means, the caller waits until the
248     cipher operation completes. Therefore, the kernel crypto API
249     calls work like regular function calls. For synchronous
250     operation, the set of API calls is small and conceptually
251     similar to any other crypto library.
252    </para>
253
254    <para>
255     Asynchronous operation is provided by the kernel crypto API
256     which implies that the invocation of a cipher operation will
257     complete almost instantly. That invocation triggers the
258     cipher operation but it does not signal its completion. Before
259     invoking a cipher operation, the caller must provide a callback
260     function the kernel crypto API can invoke to signal the
261     completion of the cipher operation. Furthermore, the caller
262     must ensure it can handle such asynchronous events by applying
263     appropriate locking around its data. The kernel crypto API
264     does not perform any special serialization operation to protect
265     the caller's data integrity.
266    </para>
267   </sect1>
268
269   <sect1><title>Crypto API Cipher References And Priority</title>
270    <para>
271     A cipher is referenced by the caller with a string. That string
272     has the following semantics:
273
274     <programlisting>
275	template(single block cipher)
276     </programlisting>
277
278     where "template" and "single block cipher" is the aforementioned
279     template and single block cipher, respectively. If applicable,
280     additional templates may enclose other templates, such as
281
282      <programlisting>
283	template1(template2(single block cipher)))
284      </programlisting>
285    </para>
286
287    <para>
288     The kernel crypto API may provide multiple implementations of a
289     template or a single block cipher. For example, AES on newer
290     Intel hardware has the following implementations: AES-NI,
291     assembler implementation, or straight C. Now, when using the
292     string "aes" with the kernel crypto API, which cipher
293     implementation is used? The answer to that question is the
294     priority number assigned to each cipher implementation by the
295     kernel crypto API. When a caller uses the string to refer to a
296     cipher during initialization of a cipher handle, the kernel
297     crypto API looks up all implementations providing an
298     implementation with that name and selects the implementation
299     with the highest priority.
300    </para>
301
302    <para>
303     Now, a caller may have the need to refer to a specific cipher
304     implementation and thus does not want to rely on the
305     priority-based selection. To accommodate this scenario, the
306     kernel crypto API allows the cipher implementation to register
307     a unique name in addition to common names. When using that
308     unique name, a caller is therefore always sure to refer to
309     the intended cipher implementation.
310    </para>
311
312    <para>
313     The list of available ciphers is given in /proc/crypto. However,
314     that list does not specify all possible permutations of
315     templates and ciphers. Each block listed in /proc/crypto may
316     contain the following information -- if one of the components
317     listed as follows are not applicable to a cipher, it is not
318     displayed:
319    </para>
320
321    <itemizedlist>
322     <listitem>
323      <para>name: the generic name of the cipher that is subject
324       to the priority-based selection -- this name can be used by
325       the cipher allocation API calls (all names listed above are
326       examples for such generic names)</para>
327     </listitem>
328     <listitem>
329      <para>driver: the unique name of the cipher -- this name can
330       be used by the cipher allocation API calls</para>
331     </listitem>
332     <listitem>
333      <para>module: the kernel module providing the cipher
334       implementation (or "kernel" for statically linked ciphers)</para>
335     </listitem>
336     <listitem>
337      <para>priority: the priority value of the cipher implementation</para>
338     </listitem>
339     <listitem>
340      <para>refcnt: the reference count of the respective cipher
341       (i.e. the number of current consumers of this cipher)</para>
342     </listitem>
343     <listitem>
344      <para>selftest: specification whether the self test for the
345       cipher passed</para>
346     </listitem>
347     <listitem>
348      <para>type:
349       <itemizedlist>
350        <listitem>
351         <para>blkcipher for synchronous block ciphers</para>
352        </listitem>
353        <listitem>
354         <para>ablkcipher for asynchronous block ciphers</para>
355        </listitem>
356        <listitem>
357         <para>cipher for single block ciphers that may be used with
358          an additional template</para>
359        </listitem>
360        <listitem>
361         <para>shash for synchronous message digest</para>
362        </listitem>
363        <listitem>
364         <para>ahash for asynchronous message digest</para>
365        </listitem>
366        <listitem>
367         <para>aead for AEAD cipher type</para>
368        </listitem>
369        <listitem>
370         <para>compression for compression type transformations</para>
371        </listitem>
372        <listitem>
373         <para>rng for random number generator</para>
374        </listitem>
375        <listitem>
376         <para>givcipher for cipher with associated IV generator
377          (see the geniv entry below for the specification of the
378          IV generator type used by the cipher implementation)</para>
379        </listitem>
380       </itemizedlist>
381      </para>
382     </listitem>
383     <listitem>
384      <para>blocksize: blocksize of cipher in bytes</para>
385     </listitem>
386     <listitem>
387      <para>keysize: key size in bytes</para>
388     </listitem>
389     <listitem>
390      <para>ivsize: IV size in bytes</para>
391     </listitem>
392     <listitem>
393      <para>seedsize: required size of seed data for random number
394       generator</para>
395     </listitem>
396     <listitem>
397      <para>digestsize: output size of the message digest</para>
398     </listitem>
399     <listitem>
400      <para>geniv: IV generation type:
401       <itemizedlist>
402        <listitem>
403         <para>eseqiv for encrypted sequence number based IV
404          generation</para>
405        </listitem>
406        <listitem>
407         <para>seqiv for sequence number based IV generation</para>
408        </listitem>
409        <listitem>
410         <para>chainiv for chain iv generation</para>
411        </listitem>
412        <listitem>
413         <para>&lt;builtin&gt; is a marker that the cipher implements
414          IV generation and handling as it is specific to the given
415          cipher</para>
416        </listitem>
417       </itemizedlist>
418      </para>
419     </listitem>
420    </itemizedlist>
421   </sect1>
422
423   <sect1><title>Key Sizes</title>
424    <para>
425     When allocating a cipher handle, the caller only specifies the
426     cipher type. Symmetric ciphers, however, typically support
427     multiple key sizes (e.g. AES-128 vs. AES-192 vs. AES-256).
428     These key sizes are determined with the length of the provided
429     key. Thus, the kernel crypto API does not provide a separate
430     way to select the particular symmetric cipher key size.
431    </para>
432   </sect1>
433
434   <sect1><title>Cipher Allocation Type And Masks</title>
435    <para>
436     The different cipher handle allocation functions allow the
437     specification of a type and mask flag. Both parameters have
438     the following meaning (and are therefore not covered in the
439     subsequent sections).
440    </para>
441
442    <para>
443     The type flag specifies the type of the cipher algorithm.
444     The caller usually provides a 0 when the caller wants the
445     default handling. Otherwise, the caller may provide the
446     following selections which match the the aforementioned
447     cipher types:
448    </para>
449
450    <itemizedlist>
451     <listitem>
452      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_CIPHER Single block cipher</para>
453     </listitem>
454     <listitem>
455      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_COMPRESS Compression</para>
456     </listitem>
457     <listitem>
458     <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_AEAD Authenticated Encryption with
459      Associated Data (MAC)</para>
460     </listitem>
461     <listitem>
462      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_BLKCIPHER Synchronous multi-block cipher</para>
463     </listitem>
464     <listitem>
465      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_ABLKCIPHER Asynchronous multi-block cipher</para>
466     </listitem>
467     <listitem>
468      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_GIVCIPHER Asynchronous multi-block
469       cipher packed together with an IV generator (see geniv field
470       in the /proc/crypto listing for the known IV generators)</para>
471     </listitem>
472     <listitem>
473      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_DIGEST Raw message digest</para>
474     </listitem>
475     <listitem>
476      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_HASH Alias for CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_DIGEST</para>
477     </listitem>
478     <listitem>
479      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_SHASH Synchronous multi-block hash</para>
480     </listitem>
481     <listitem>
482      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_AHASH Asynchronous multi-block hash</para>
483     </listitem>
484     <listitem>
485      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_RNG Random Number Generation</para>
486     </listitem>
487     <listitem>
488      <para>CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_PCOMPRESS Enhanced version of
489       CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_COMPRESS allowing for segmented compression /
490       decompression instead of performing the operation on one
491       segment only. CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_PCOMPRESS is intended to replace
492       CRYPTO_ALG_TYPE_COMPRESS once existing consumers are converted.</para>
493     </listitem>
494    </itemizedlist>
495
496    <para>
497     The mask flag restricts the type of cipher. The only allowed
498     flag is CRYPTO_ALG_ASYNC to restrict the cipher lookup function
499     to asynchronous ciphers. Usually, a caller provides a 0 for the
500     mask flag.
501    </para>
502
503    <para>
504     When the caller provides a mask and type specification, the
505     caller limits the search the kernel crypto API can perform for
506     a suitable cipher implementation for the given cipher name.
507     That means, even when a caller uses a cipher name that exists
508     during its initialization call, the kernel crypto API may not
509     select it due to the used type and mask field.
510    </para>
511   </sect1>
512
513   <sect1><title>Internal Structure of Kernel Crypto API</title>
514
515    <para>
516     The kernel crypto API has an internal structure where a cipher
517     implementation may use many layers and indirections. This section
518     shall help to clarify how the kernel crypto API uses
519     various components to implement the complete cipher.
520    </para>
521
522    <para>
523     The following subsections explain the internal structure based
524     on existing cipher implementations. The first section addresses
525     the most complex scenario where all other scenarios form a logical
526     subset.
527    </para>
528
529    <sect2><title>Generic AEAD Cipher Structure</title>
530
531     <para>
532      The following ASCII art decomposes the kernel crypto API layers
533      when using the AEAD cipher with the automated IV generation. The
534      shown example is used by the IPSEC layer.
535     </para>
536
537     <para>
538      For other use cases of AEAD ciphers, the ASCII art applies as
539      well, but the caller may not use the GIVCIPHER interface. In
540      this case, the caller must generate the IV.
541     </para>
542
543     <para>
544      The depicted example decomposes the AEAD cipher of GCM(AES) based
545      on the generic C implementations (gcm.c, aes-generic.c, ctr.c,
546      ghash-generic.c, seqiv.c). The generic implementation serves as an
547      example showing the complete logic of the kernel crypto API.
548     </para>
549
550     <para>
551      It is possible that some streamlined cipher implementations (like
552      AES-NI) provide implementations merging aspects which in the view
553      of the kernel crypto API cannot be decomposed into layers any more.
554      In case of the AES-NI implementation, the CTR mode, the GHASH
555      implementation and the AES cipher are all merged into one cipher
556      implementation registered with the kernel crypto API. In this case,
557      the concept described by the following ASCII art applies too. However,
558      the decomposition of GCM into the individual sub-components
559      by the kernel crypto API is not done any more.
560     </para>
561
562     <para>
563      Each block in the following ASCII art is an independent cipher
564      instance obtained from the kernel crypto API. Each block
565      is accessed by the caller or by other blocks using the API functions
566      defined by the kernel crypto API for the cipher implementation type.
567     </para>
568
569     <para>
570      The blocks below indicate the cipher type as well as the specific
571      logic implemented in the cipher.
572     </para>
573
574     <para>
575      The ASCII art picture also indicates the call structure, i.e. who
576      calls which component. The arrows point to the invoked block
577      where the caller uses the API applicable to the cipher type
578      specified for the block.
579     </para>
580
581     <programlisting>
582<![CDATA[
583kernel crypto API                                |   IPSEC Layer
584                                                 |
585+-----------+                                    |
586|           |            (1)
587| givcipher | <-----------------------------------  esp_output
588|  (seqiv)  | ---+
589+-----------+    |
590                 | (2)
591+-----------+    |
592|           | <--+                (2)
593|   aead    | <-----------------------------------  esp_input
594|   (gcm)   | ------------+
595+-----------+             |
596      | (3)               | (5)
597      v                   v
598+-----------+       +-----------+
599|           |       |           |
600| ablkcipher|       |   ahash   |
601|   (ctr)   | ---+  |  (ghash)  |
602+-----------+    |  +-----------+
603                 |
604+-----------+    | (4)
605|           | <--+
606|   cipher  |
607|   (aes)   |
608+-----------+
609]]>
610     </programlisting>
611
612     <para>
613      The following call sequence is applicable when the IPSEC layer
614      triggers an encryption operation with the esp_output function. During
615      configuration, the administrator set up the use of rfc4106(gcm(aes)) as
616      the cipher for ESP. The following call sequence is now depicted in the
617      ASCII art above:
618     </para>
619
620     <orderedlist>
621      <listitem>
622       <para>
623        esp_output() invokes crypto_aead_givencrypt() to trigger an encryption
624        operation of the GIVCIPHER implementation.
625       </para>
626
627       <para>
628        In case of GCM, the SEQIV implementation is registered as GIVCIPHER
629        in crypto_rfc4106_alloc().
630       </para>
631
632       <para>
633        The SEQIV performs its operation to generate an IV where the core
634        function is seqiv_geniv().
635       </para>
636      </listitem>
637
638      <listitem>
639       <para>
640        Now, SEQIV uses the AEAD API function calls to invoke the associated
641        AEAD cipher. In our case, during the instantiation of SEQIV, the
642        cipher handle for GCM is provided to SEQIV. This means that SEQIV
643        invokes AEAD cipher operations with the GCM cipher handle.
644       </para>
645
646       <para>
647        During instantiation of the GCM handle, the CTR(AES) and GHASH
648        ciphers are instantiated. The cipher handles for CTR(AES) and GHASH
649        are retained for later use.
650       </para>
651
652       <para>
653        The GCM implementation is responsible to invoke the CTR mode AES and
654        the GHASH cipher in the right manner to implement the GCM
655        specification.
656       </para>
657      </listitem>
658
659      <listitem>
660       <para>
661        The GCM AEAD cipher type implementation now invokes the ABLKCIPHER API
662        with the instantiated CTR(AES) cipher handle.
663       </para>
664
665       <para>
666	During instantiation of the CTR(AES) cipher, the CIPHER type
667	implementation of AES is instantiated. The cipher handle for AES is
668	retained.
669       </para>
670
671       <para>
672        That means that the ABLKCIPHER implementation of CTR(AES) only
673        implements the CTR block chaining mode. After performing the block
674        chaining operation, the CIPHER implementation of AES is invoked.
675       </para>
676      </listitem>
677
678      <listitem>
679       <para>
680        The ABLKCIPHER of CTR(AES) now invokes the CIPHER API with the AES
681        cipher handle to encrypt one block.
682       </para>
683      </listitem>
684
685      <listitem>
686       <para>
687        The GCM AEAD implementation also invokes the GHASH cipher
688        implementation via the AHASH API.
689       </para>
690      </listitem>
691     </orderedlist>
692
693     <para>
694      When the IPSEC layer triggers the esp_input() function, the same call
695      sequence is followed with the only difference that the operation starts
696      with step (2).
697     </para>
698    </sect2>
699
700    <sect2><title>Generic Block Cipher Structure</title>
701     <para>
702      Generic block ciphers follow the same concept as depicted with the ASCII
703      art picture above.
704     </para>
705
706     <para>
707      For example, CBC(AES) is implemented with cbc.c, and aes-generic.c. The
708      ASCII art picture above applies as well with the difference that only
709      step (4) is used and the ABLKCIPHER block chaining mode is CBC.
710     </para>
711    </sect2>
712
713    <sect2><title>Generic Keyed Message Digest Structure</title>
714     <para>
715      Keyed message digest implementations again follow the same concept as
716      depicted in the ASCII art picture above.
717     </para>
718
719     <para>
720      For example, HMAC(SHA256) is implemented with hmac.c and
721      sha256_generic.c. The following ASCII art illustrates the
722      implementation:
723     </para>
724
725     <programlisting>
726<![CDATA[
727kernel crypto API            |       Caller
728                             |
729+-----------+         (1)    |
730|           | <------------------  some_function
731|   ahash   |
732|   (hmac)  | ---+
733+-----------+    |
734                 | (2)
735+-----------+    |
736|           | <--+
737|   shash   |
738|  (sha256) |
739+-----------+
740]]>
741     </programlisting>
742
743     <para>
744      The following call sequence is applicable when a caller triggers
745      an HMAC operation:
746     </para>
747
748     <orderedlist>
749      <listitem>
750       <para>
751        The AHASH API functions are invoked by the caller. The HMAC
752        implementation performs its operation as needed.
753       </para>
754
755       <para>
756        During initialization of the HMAC cipher, the SHASH cipher type of
757        SHA256 is instantiated. The cipher handle for the SHA256 instance is
758        retained.
759       </para>
760
761       <para>
762        At one time, the HMAC implementation requires a SHA256 operation
763        where the SHA256 cipher handle is used.
764       </para>
765      </listitem>
766
767      <listitem>
768       <para>
769        The HMAC instance now invokes the SHASH API with the SHA256
770        cipher handle to calculate the message digest.
771       </para>
772      </listitem>
773     </orderedlist>
774    </sect2>
775   </sect1>
776  </chapter>
777
778  <chapter id="Development"><title>Developing Cipher Algorithms</title>
779   <sect1><title>Registering And Unregistering Transformation</title>
780    <para>
781     There are three distinct types of registration functions in
782     the Crypto API. One is used to register a generic cryptographic
783     transformation, while the other two are specific to HASH
784     transformations and COMPRESSion. We will discuss the latter
785     two in a separate chapter, here we will only look at the
786     generic ones.
787    </para>
788
789    <para>
790     Before discussing the register functions, the data structure
791     to be filled with each, struct crypto_alg, must be considered
792     -- see below for a description of this data structure.
793    </para>
794
795    <para>
796     The generic registration functions can be found in
797     include/linux/crypto.h and their definition can be seen below.
798     The former function registers a single transformation, while
799     the latter works on an array of transformation descriptions.
800     The latter is useful when registering transformations in bulk.
801    </para>
802
803    <programlisting>
804   int crypto_register_alg(struct crypto_alg *alg);
805   int crypto_register_algs(struct crypto_alg *algs, int count);
806    </programlisting>
807
808    <para>
809     The counterparts to those functions are listed below.
810    </para>
811
812    <programlisting>
813   int crypto_unregister_alg(struct crypto_alg *alg);
814   int crypto_unregister_algs(struct crypto_alg *algs, int count);
815    </programlisting>
816
817    <para>
818     Notice that both registration and unregistration functions
819     do return a value, so make sure to handle errors. A return
820     code of zero implies success. Any return code &lt; 0 implies
821     an error.
822    </para>
823
824    <para>
825     The bulk registration / unregistration functions require
826     that struct crypto_alg is an array of count size. These
827     functions simply loop over that array and register /
828     unregister each individual algorithm. If an error occurs,
829     the loop is terminated at the offending algorithm definition.
830     That means, the algorithms prior to the offending algorithm
831     are successfully registered. Note, the caller has no way of
832     knowing which cipher implementations have successfully
833     registered. If this is important to know, the caller should
834     loop through the different implementations using the single
835     instance *_alg functions for each individual implementation.
836    </para>
837   </sect1>
838
839   <sect1><title>Single-Block Symmetric Ciphers [CIPHER]</title>
840    <para>
841     Example of transformations: aes, arc4, ...
842    </para>
843
844    <para>
845     This section describes the simplest of all transformation
846     implementations, that being the CIPHER type used for symmetric
847     ciphers. The CIPHER type is used for transformations which
848     operate on exactly one block at a time and there are no
849     dependencies between blocks at all.
850    </para>
851
852    <sect2><title>Registration specifics</title>
853     <para>
854      The registration of [CIPHER] algorithm is specific in that
855      struct crypto_alg field .cra_type is empty. The .cra_u.cipher
856      has to be filled in with proper callbacks to implement this
857      transformation.
858     </para>
859
860     <para>
861      See struct cipher_alg below.
862     </para>
863    </sect2>
864
865    <sect2><title>Cipher Definition With struct cipher_alg</title>
866     <para>
867      Struct cipher_alg defines a single block cipher.
868     </para>
869
870     <para>
871      Here are schematics of how these functions are called when
872      operated from other part of the kernel. Note that the
873      .cia_setkey() call might happen before or after any of these
874      schematics happen, but must not happen during any of these
875      are in-flight.
876     </para>
877
878     <para>
879      <programlisting>
880         KEY ---.    PLAINTEXT ---.
881                v                 v
882          .cia_setkey() -&gt; .cia_encrypt()
883                                  |
884                                  '-----&gt; CIPHERTEXT
885      </programlisting>
886     </para>
887
888     <para>
889      Please note that a pattern where .cia_setkey() is called
890      multiple times is also valid:
891     </para>
892
893     <para>
894      <programlisting>
895
896  KEY1 --.    PLAINTEXT1 --.         KEY2 --.    PLAINTEXT2 --.
897         v                 v                v                 v
898   .cia_setkey() -&gt; .cia_encrypt() -&gt; .cia_setkey() -&gt; .cia_encrypt()
899                           |                                  |
900                           '---&gt; CIPHERTEXT1                  '---&gt; CIPHERTEXT2
901      </programlisting>
902     </para>
903
904    </sect2>
905   </sect1>
906
907   <sect1><title>Multi-Block Ciphers [BLKCIPHER] [ABLKCIPHER]</title>
908    <para>
909     Example of transformations: cbc(aes), ecb(arc4), ...
910    </para>
911
912    <para>
913     This section describes the multi-block cipher transformation
914     implementations for both synchronous [BLKCIPHER] and
915     asynchronous [ABLKCIPHER] case. The multi-block ciphers are
916     used for transformations which operate on scatterlists of
917     data supplied to the transformation functions. They output
918     the result into a scatterlist of data as well.
919    </para>
920
921    <sect2><title>Registration Specifics</title>
922
923     <para>
924      The registration of [BLKCIPHER] or [ABLKCIPHER] algorithms
925      is one of the most standard procedures throughout the crypto API.
926     </para>
927
928     <para>
929      Note, if a cipher implementation requires a proper alignment
930      of data, the caller should use the functions of
931      crypto_blkcipher_alignmask() or crypto_ablkcipher_alignmask()
932      respectively to identify a memory alignment mask. The kernel
933      crypto API is able to process requests that are unaligned.
934      This implies, however, additional overhead as the kernel
935      crypto API needs to perform the realignment of the data which
936      may imply moving of data.
937     </para>
938    </sect2>
939
940    <sect2><title>Cipher Definition With struct blkcipher_alg and ablkcipher_alg</title>
941     <para>
942      Struct blkcipher_alg defines a synchronous block cipher whereas
943      struct ablkcipher_alg defines an asynchronous block cipher.
944     </para>
945
946     <para>
947      Please refer to the single block cipher description for schematics
948      of the block cipher usage. The usage patterns are exactly the same
949      for [ABLKCIPHER] and [BLKCIPHER] as they are for plain [CIPHER].
950     </para>
951    </sect2>
952
953    <sect2><title>Specifics Of Asynchronous Multi-Block Cipher</title>
954     <para>
955      There are a couple of specifics to the [ABLKCIPHER] interface.
956     </para>
957
958     <para>
959      First of all, some of the drivers will want to use the
960      Generic ScatterWalk in case the hardware needs to be fed
961      separate chunks of the scatterlist which contains the
962      plaintext and will contain the ciphertext. Please refer
963      to the ScatterWalk interface offered by the Linux kernel
964      scatter / gather list implementation.
965     </para>
966    </sect2>
967   </sect1>
968
969   <sect1><title>Hashing [HASH]</title>
970
971    <para>
972     Example of transformations: crc32, md5, sha1, sha256,...
973    </para>
974
975    <sect2><title>Registering And Unregistering The Transformation</title>
976
977     <para>
978      There are multiple ways to register a HASH transformation,
979      depending on whether the transformation is synchronous [SHASH]
980      or asynchronous [AHASH] and the amount of HASH transformations
981      we are registering. You can find the prototypes defined in
982      include/crypto/internal/hash.h:
983     </para>
984
985     <programlisting>
986   int crypto_register_ahash(struct ahash_alg *alg);
987
988   int crypto_register_shash(struct shash_alg *alg);
989   int crypto_register_shashes(struct shash_alg *algs, int count);
990     </programlisting>
991
992     <para>
993      The respective counterparts for unregistering the HASH
994      transformation are as follows:
995     </para>
996
997     <programlisting>
998   int crypto_unregister_ahash(struct ahash_alg *alg);
999
1000   int crypto_unregister_shash(struct shash_alg *alg);
1001   int crypto_unregister_shashes(struct shash_alg *algs, int count);
1002     </programlisting>
1003    </sect2>
1004
1005    <sect2><title>Cipher Definition With struct shash_alg and ahash_alg</title>
1006     <para>
1007      Here are schematics of how these functions are called when
1008      operated from other part of the kernel. Note that the .setkey()
1009      call might happen before or after any of these schematics happen,
1010      but must not happen during any of these are in-flight. Please note
1011      that calling .init() followed immediately by .finish() is also a
1012      perfectly valid transformation.
1013     </para>
1014
1015     <programlisting>
1016   I)   DATA -----------.
1017                        v
1018         .init() -&gt; .update() -&gt; .final()      ! .update() might not be called
1019                     ^    |         |            at all in this scenario.
1020                     '----'         '---&gt; HASH
1021
1022   II)  DATA -----------.-----------.
1023                        v           v
1024         .init() -&gt; .update() -&gt; .finup()      ! .update() may not be called
1025                     ^    |         |            at all in this scenario.
1026                     '----'         '---&gt; HASH
1027
1028   III) DATA -----------.
1029                        v
1030                    .digest()                  ! The entire process is handled
1031                        |                        by the .digest() call.
1032                        '---------------&gt; HASH
1033     </programlisting>
1034
1035     <para>
1036      Here is a schematic of how the .export()/.import() functions are
1037      called when used from another part of the kernel.
1038     </para>
1039
1040     <programlisting>
1041   KEY--.                 DATA--.
1042        v                       v                  ! .update() may not be called
1043    .setkey() -&gt; .init() -&gt; .update() -&gt; .export()   at all in this scenario.
1044                             ^     |         |
1045                             '-----'         '--&gt; PARTIAL_HASH
1046
1047   ----------- other transformations happen here -----------
1048
1049   PARTIAL_HASH--.   DATA1--.
1050                 v          v
1051             .import -&gt; .update() -&gt; .final()     ! .update() may not be called
1052                         ^    |         |           at all in this scenario.
1053                         '----'         '--&gt; HASH1
1054
1055   PARTIAL_HASH--.   DATA2-.
1056                 v         v
1057             .import -&gt; .finup()
1058                           |
1059                           '---------------&gt; HASH2
1060     </programlisting>
1061    </sect2>
1062
1063    <sect2><title>Specifics Of Asynchronous HASH Transformation</title>
1064     <para>
1065      Some of the drivers will want to use the Generic ScatterWalk
1066      in case the implementation needs to be fed separate chunks of the
1067      scatterlist which contains the input data. The buffer containing
1068      the resulting hash will always be properly aligned to
1069      .cra_alignmask so there is no need to worry about this.
1070     </para>
1071    </sect2>
1072   </sect1>
1073  </chapter>
1074
1075  <chapter id="User"><title>User Space Interface</title>
1076   <sect1><title>Introduction</title>
1077    <para>
1078     The concepts of the kernel crypto API visible to kernel space is fully
1079     applicable to the user space interface as well. Therefore, the kernel
1080     crypto API high level discussion for the in-kernel use cases applies
1081     here as well.
1082    </para>
1083
1084    <para>
1085     The major difference, however, is that user space can only act as a
1086     consumer and never as a provider of a transformation or cipher algorithm.
1087    </para>
1088
1089    <para>
1090     The following covers the user space interface exported by the kernel
1091     crypto API. A working example of this description is libkcapi that
1092     can be obtained from [1]. That library can be used by user space
1093     applications that require cryptographic services from the kernel.
1094    </para>
1095
1096    <para>
1097     Some details of the in-kernel kernel crypto API aspects do not
1098     apply to user space, however. This includes the difference between
1099     synchronous and asynchronous invocations. The user space API call
1100     is fully synchronous.
1101    </para>
1102
1103    <para>
1104     [1] http://www.chronox.de/libkcapi.html
1105    </para>
1106
1107   </sect1>
1108
1109   <sect1><title>User Space API General Remarks</title>
1110    <para>
1111     The kernel crypto API is accessible from user space. Currently,
1112     the following ciphers are accessible:
1113    </para>
1114
1115    <itemizedlist>
1116     <listitem>
1117      <para>Message digest including keyed message digest (HMAC, CMAC)</para>
1118     </listitem>
1119
1120     <listitem>
1121      <para>Symmetric ciphers</para>
1122     </listitem>
1123
1124     <listitem>
1125      <para>AEAD ciphers</para>
1126     </listitem>
1127
1128     <listitem>
1129      <para>Random Number Generators</para>
1130     </listitem>
1131    </itemizedlist>
1132
1133    <para>
1134     The interface is provided via socket type using the type AF_ALG.
1135     In addition, the setsockopt option type is SOL_ALG. In case the
1136     user space header files do not export these flags yet, use the
1137     following macros:
1138    </para>
1139
1140    <programlisting>
1141#ifndef AF_ALG
1142#define AF_ALG 38
1143#endif
1144#ifndef SOL_ALG
1145#define SOL_ALG 279
1146#endif
1147    </programlisting>
1148
1149    <para>
1150     A cipher is accessed with the same name as done for the in-kernel
1151     API calls. This includes the generic vs. unique naming schema for
1152     ciphers as well as the enforcement of priorities for generic names.
1153    </para>
1154
1155    <para>
1156     To interact with the kernel crypto API, a socket must be
1157     created by the user space application. User space invokes the cipher
1158     operation with the send()/write() system call family. The result of the
1159     cipher operation is obtained with the read()/recv() system call family.
1160    </para>
1161
1162    <para>
1163     The following API calls assume that the socket descriptor
1164     is already opened by the user space application and discusses only
1165     the kernel crypto API specific invocations.
1166    </para>
1167
1168    <para>
1169     To initialize the socket interface, the following sequence has to
1170     be performed by the consumer:
1171    </para>
1172
1173    <orderedlist>
1174     <listitem>
1175      <para>
1176       Create a socket of type AF_ALG with the struct sockaddr_alg
1177       parameter specified below for the different cipher types.
1178      </para>
1179     </listitem>
1180
1181     <listitem>
1182      <para>
1183       Invoke bind with the socket descriptor
1184      </para>
1185     </listitem>
1186
1187     <listitem>
1188      <para>
1189       Invoke accept with the socket descriptor. The accept system call
1190       returns a new file descriptor that is to be used to interact with
1191       the particular cipher instance. When invoking send/write or recv/read
1192       system calls to send data to the kernel or obtain data from the
1193       kernel, the file descriptor returned by accept must be used.
1194      </para>
1195     </listitem>
1196    </orderedlist>
1197   </sect1>
1198
1199   <sect1><title>In-place Cipher operation</title>
1200    <para>
1201     Just like the in-kernel operation of the kernel crypto API, the user
1202     space interface allows the cipher operation in-place. That means that
1203     the input buffer used for the send/write system call and the output
1204     buffer used by the read/recv system call may be one and the same.
1205     This is of particular interest for symmetric cipher operations where a
1206     copying of the output data to its final destination can be avoided.
1207    </para>
1208
1209    <para>
1210     If a consumer on the other hand wants to maintain the plaintext and
1211     the ciphertext in different memory locations, all a consumer needs
1212     to do is to provide different memory pointers for the encryption and
1213     decryption operation.
1214    </para>
1215   </sect1>
1216
1217   <sect1><title>Message Digest API</title>
1218    <para>
1219     The message digest type to be used for the cipher operation is
1220     selected when invoking the bind syscall. bind requires the caller
1221     to provide a filled struct sockaddr data structure. This data
1222     structure must be filled as follows:
1223    </para>
1224
1225    <programlisting>
1226struct sockaddr_alg sa = {
1227	.salg_family = AF_ALG,
1228	.salg_type = "hash", /* this selects the hash logic in the kernel */
1229	.salg_name = "sha1" /* this is the cipher name */
1230};
1231    </programlisting>
1232
1233    <para>
1234     The salg_type value "hash" applies to message digests and keyed
1235     message digests. Though, a keyed message digest is referenced by
1236     the appropriate salg_name. Please see below for the setsockopt
1237     interface that explains how the key can be set for a keyed message
1238     digest.
1239    </para>
1240
1241    <para>
1242     Using the send() system call, the application provides the data that
1243     should be processed with the message digest. The send system call
1244     allows the following flags to be specified:
1245    </para>
1246
1247    <itemizedlist>
1248     <listitem>
1249      <para>
1250       MSG_MORE: If this flag is set, the send system call acts like a
1251       message digest update function where the final hash is not
1252       yet calculated. If the flag is not set, the send system call
1253       calculates the final message digest immediately.
1254      </para>
1255     </listitem>
1256    </itemizedlist>
1257
1258    <para>
1259     With the recv() system call, the application can read the message
1260     digest from the kernel crypto API. If the buffer is too small for the
1261     message digest, the flag MSG_TRUNC is set by the kernel.
1262    </para>
1263
1264    <para>
1265     In order to set a message digest key, the calling application must use
1266     the setsockopt() option of ALG_SET_KEY. If the key is not set the HMAC
1267     operation is performed without the initial HMAC state change caused by
1268     the key.
1269    </para>
1270   </sect1>
1271
1272   <sect1><title>Symmetric Cipher API</title>
1273    <para>
1274     The operation is very similar to the message digest discussion.
1275     During initialization, the struct sockaddr data structure must be
1276     filled as follows:
1277    </para>
1278
1279    <programlisting>
1280struct sockaddr_alg sa = {
1281	.salg_family = AF_ALG,
1282	.salg_type = "skcipher", /* this selects the symmetric cipher */
1283	.salg_name = "cbc(aes)" /* this is the cipher name */
1284};
1285    </programlisting>
1286
1287    <para>
1288     Before data can be sent to the kernel using the write/send system
1289     call family, the consumer must set the key. The key setting is
1290     described with the setsockopt invocation below.
1291    </para>
1292
1293    <para>
1294     Using the sendmsg() system call, the application provides the data that should be processed for encryption or decryption. In addition, the IV is
1295     specified with the data structure provided by the sendmsg() system call.
1296    </para>
1297
1298    <para>
1299     The sendmsg system call parameter of struct msghdr is embedded into the
1300     struct cmsghdr data structure. See recv(2) and cmsg(3) for more
1301     information on how the cmsghdr data structure is used together with the
1302     send/recv system call family. That cmsghdr data structure holds the
1303     following information specified with a separate header instances:
1304    </para>
1305
1306    <itemizedlist>
1307     <listitem>
1308      <para>
1309       specification of the cipher operation type with one of these flags:
1310      </para>
1311      <itemizedlist>
1312       <listitem>
1313        <para>ALG_OP_ENCRYPT - encryption of data</para>
1314       </listitem>
1315       <listitem>
1316        <para>ALG_OP_DECRYPT - decryption of data</para>
1317       </listitem>
1318      </itemizedlist>
1319     </listitem>
1320
1321     <listitem>
1322      <para>
1323       specification of the IV information marked with the flag ALG_SET_IV
1324      </para>
1325     </listitem>
1326    </itemizedlist>
1327
1328    <para>
1329     The send system call family allows the following flag to be specified:
1330    </para>
1331
1332    <itemizedlist>
1333     <listitem>
1334      <para>
1335       MSG_MORE: If this flag is set, the send system call acts like a
1336       cipher update function where more input data is expected
1337       with a subsequent invocation of the send system call.
1338      </para>
1339     </listitem>
1340    </itemizedlist>
1341
1342    <para>
1343     Note: The kernel reports -EINVAL for any unexpected data. The caller
1344     must make sure that all data matches the constraints given in
1345     /proc/crypto for the selected cipher.
1346    </para>
1347
1348    <para>
1349     With the recv() system call, the application can read the result of
1350     the cipher operation from the kernel crypto API. The output buffer
1351     must be at least as large as to hold all blocks of the encrypted or
1352     decrypted data. If the output data size is smaller, only as many
1353     blocks are returned that fit into that output buffer size.
1354    </para>
1355   </sect1>
1356
1357   <sect1><title>AEAD Cipher API</title>
1358    <para>
1359     The operation is very similar to the symmetric cipher discussion.
1360     During initialization, the struct sockaddr data structure must be
1361     filled as follows:
1362    </para>
1363
1364    <programlisting>
1365struct sockaddr_alg sa = {
1366	.salg_family = AF_ALG,
1367	.salg_type = "aead", /* this selects the symmetric cipher */
1368	.salg_name = "gcm(aes)" /* this is the cipher name */
1369};
1370    </programlisting>
1371
1372    <para>
1373     Before data can be sent to the kernel using the write/send system
1374     call family, the consumer must set the key. The key setting is
1375     described with the setsockopt invocation below.
1376    </para>
1377
1378    <para>
1379     In addition, before data can be sent to the kernel using the
1380     write/send system call family, the consumer must set the authentication
1381     tag size. To set the authentication tag size, the caller must use the
1382     setsockopt invocation described below.
1383    </para>
1384
1385    <para>
1386     Using the sendmsg() system call, the application provides the data that should be processed for encryption or decryption. In addition, the IV is
1387     specified with the data structure provided by the sendmsg() system call.
1388    </para>
1389
1390    <para>
1391     The sendmsg system call parameter of struct msghdr is embedded into the
1392     struct cmsghdr data structure. See recv(2) and cmsg(3) for more
1393     information on how the cmsghdr data structure is used together with the
1394     send/recv system call family. That cmsghdr data structure holds the
1395     following information specified with a separate header instances:
1396    </para>
1397
1398    <itemizedlist>
1399     <listitem>
1400      <para>
1401       specification of the cipher operation type with one of these flags:
1402      </para>
1403      <itemizedlist>
1404       <listitem>
1405        <para>ALG_OP_ENCRYPT - encryption of data</para>
1406       </listitem>
1407       <listitem>
1408        <para>ALG_OP_DECRYPT - decryption of data</para>
1409       </listitem>
1410      </itemizedlist>
1411     </listitem>
1412
1413     <listitem>
1414      <para>
1415       specification of the IV information marked with the flag ALG_SET_IV
1416      </para>
1417     </listitem>
1418
1419     <listitem>
1420      <para>
1421       specification of the associated authentication data (AAD) with the
1422       flag ALG_SET_AEAD_ASSOCLEN. The AAD is sent to the kernel together
1423       with the plaintext / ciphertext. See below for the memory structure.
1424      </para>
1425     </listitem>
1426    </itemizedlist>
1427
1428    <para>
1429     The send system call family allows the following flag to be specified:
1430    </para>
1431
1432    <itemizedlist>
1433     <listitem>
1434      <para>
1435       MSG_MORE: If this flag is set, the send system call acts like a
1436       cipher update function where more input data is expected
1437       with a subsequent invocation of the send system call.
1438      </para>
1439     </listitem>
1440    </itemizedlist>
1441
1442    <para>
1443     Note: The kernel reports -EINVAL for any unexpected data. The caller
1444     must make sure that all data matches the constraints given in
1445     /proc/crypto for the selected cipher.
1446    </para>
1447
1448    <para>
1449     With the recv() system call, the application can read the result of
1450     the cipher operation from the kernel crypto API. The output buffer
1451     must be at least as large as defined with the memory structure below.
1452     If the output data size is smaller, the cipher operation is not performed.
1453    </para>
1454
1455    <para>
1456     The authenticated decryption operation may indicate an integrity error.
1457     Such breach in integrity is marked with the -EBADMSG error code.
1458    </para>
1459
1460    <sect2><title>AEAD Memory Structure</title>
1461     <para>
1462      The AEAD cipher operates with the following information that
1463      is communicated between user and kernel space as one data stream:
1464     </para>
1465
1466     <itemizedlist>
1467      <listitem>
1468       <para>plaintext or ciphertext</para>
1469      </listitem>
1470
1471      <listitem>
1472       <para>associated authentication data (AAD)</para>
1473      </listitem>
1474
1475      <listitem>
1476       <para>authentication tag</para>
1477      </listitem>
1478     </itemizedlist>
1479
1480     <para>
1481      The sizes of the AAD and the authentication tag are provided with
1482      the sendmsg and setsockopt calls (see there). As the kernel knows
1483      the size of the entire data stream, the kernel is now able to
1484      calculate the right offsets of the data components in the data
1485      stream.
1486     </para>
1487
1488     <para>
1489      The user space caller must arrange the aforementioned information
1490      in the following order:
1491     </para>
1492
1493     <itemizedlist>
1494      <listitem>
1495       <para>
1496        AEAD encryption input: AAD || plaintext
1497       </para>
1498      </listitem>
1499
1500      <listitem>
1501       <para>
1502        AEAD decryption input: AAD || ciphertext || authentication tag
1503       </para>
1504      </listitem>
1505     </itemizedlist>
1506
1507     <para>
1508      The output buffer the user space caller provides must be at least as
1509      large to hold the following data:
1510     </para>
1511
1512     <itemizedlist>
1513      <listitem>
1514       <para>
1515        AEAD encryption output: ciphertext || authentication tag
1516       </para>
1517      </listitem>
1518
1519      <listitem>
1520       <para>
1521        AEAD decryption output: plaintext
1522       </para>
1523      </listitem>
1524     </itemizedlist>
1525    </sect2>
1526   </sect1>
1527
1528   <sect1><title>Random Number Generator API</title>
1529    <para>
1530     Again, the operation is very similar to the other APIs.
1531     During initialization, the struct sockaddr data structure must be
1532     filled as follows:
1533    </para>
1534
1535    <programlisting>
1536struct sockaddr_alg sa = {
1537	.salg_family = AF_ALG,
1538	.salg_type = "rng", /* this selects the symmetric cipher */
1539	.salg_name = "drbg_nopr_sha256" /* this is the cipher name */
1540};
1541    </programlisting>
1542
1543    <para>
1544     Depending on the RNG type, the RNG must be seeded. The seed is provided
1545     using the setsockopt interface to set the key. For example, the
1546     ansi_cprng requires a seed. The DRBGs do not require a seed, but
1547     may be seeded.
1548    </para>
1549
1550    <para>
1551     Using the read()/recvmsg() system calls, random numbers can be obtained.
1552     The kernel generates at most 128 bytes in one call. If user space
1553     requires more data, multiple calls to read()/recvmsg() must be made.
1554    </para>
1555
1556    <para>
1557     WARNING: The user space caller may invoke the initially mentioned
1558     accept system call multiple times. In this case, the returned file
1559     descriptors have the same state.
1560    </para>
1561
1562   </sect1>
1563
1564   <sect1><title>Zero-Copy Interface</title>
1565    <para>
1566     In addition to the send/write/read/recv system call familty, the AF_ALG
1567     interface can be accessed with the zero-copy interface of splice/vmsplice.
1568     As the name indicates, the kernel tries to avoid a copy operation into
1569     kernel space.
1570    </para>
1571
1572    <para>
1573     The zero-copy operation requires data to be aligned at the page boundary.
1574     Non-aligned data can be used as well, but may require more operations of
1575     the kernel which would defeat the speed gains obtained from the zero-copy
1576     interface.
1577    </para>
1578
1579    <para>
1580     The system-interent limit for the size of one zero-copy operation is
1581     16 pages. If more data is to be sent to AF_ALG, user space must slice
1582     the input into segments with a maximum size of 16 pages.
1583    </para>
1584
1585    <para>
1586     Zero-copy can be used with the following code example (a complete working
1587     example is provided with libkcapi):
1588    </para>
1589
1590    <programlisting>
1591int pipes[2];
1592
1593pipe(pipes);
1594/* input data in iov */
1595vmsplice(pipes[1], iov, iovlen, SPLICE_F_GIFT);
1596/* opfd is the file descriptor returned from accept() system call */
1597splice(pipes[0], NULL, opfd, NULL, ret, 0);
1598read(opfd, out, outlen);
1599    </programlisting>
1600
1601   </sect1>
1602
1603   <sect1><title>Setsockopt Interface</title>
1604    <para>
1605     In addition to the read/recv and send/write system call handling
1606     to send and retrieve data subject to the cipher operation, a consumer
1607     also needs to set the additional information for the cipher operation.
1608     This additional information is set using the setsockopt system call
1609     that must be invoked with the file descriptor of the open cipher
1610     (i.e. the file descriptor returned by the accept system call).
1611    </para>
1612
1613    <para>
1614     Each setsockopt invocation must use the level SOL_ALG.
1615    </para>
1616
1617    <para>
1618     The setsockopt interface allows setting the following data using
1619     the mentioned optname:
1620    </para>
1621
1622    <itemizedlist>
1623     <listitem>
1624      <para>
1625       ALG_SET_KEY -- Setting the key. Key setting is applicable to:
1626      </para>
1627      <itemizedlist>
1628       <listitem>
1629        <para>the skcipher cipher type (symmetric ciphers)</para>
1630       </listitem>
1631       <listitem>
1632        <para>the hash cipher type (keyed message digests)</para>
1633       </listitem>
1634       <listitem>
1635        <para>the AEAD cipher type</para>
1636       </listitem>
1637       <listitem>
1638        <para>the RNG cipher type to provide the seed</para>
1639       </listitem>
1640      </itemizedlist>
1641     </listitem>
1642
1643     <listitem>
1644      <para>
1645       ALG_SET_AEAD_AUTHSIZE -- Setting the authentication tag size
1646       for AEAD ciphers. For a encryption operation, the authentication
1647       tag of the given size will be generated. For a decryption operation,
1648       the provided ciphertext is assumed to contain an authentication tag
1649       of the given size (see section about AEAD memory layout below).
1650      </para>
1651     </listitem>
1652    </itemizedlist>
1653
1654   </sect1>
1655
1656   <sect1><title>User space API example</title>
1657    <para>
1658     Please see [1] for libkcapi which provides an easy-to-use wrapper
1659     around the aforementioned Netlink kernel interface. [1] also contains
1660     a test application that invokes all libkcapi API calls.
1661    </para>
1662
1663    <para>
1664     [1] http://www.chronox.de/libkcapi.html
1665    </para>
1666
1667   </sect1>
1668
1669  </chapter>
1670
1671  <chapter id="API"><title>Programming Interface</title>
1672   <sect1><title>Block Cipher Context Data Structures</title>
1673!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Block Cipher Context Data Structures
1674!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_request
1675   </sect1>
1676   <sect1><title>Block Cipher Algorithm Definitions</title>
1677!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Block Cipher Algorithm Definitions
1678!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_alg
1679!Finclude/linux/crypto.h ablkcipher_alg
1680!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_alg
1681!Finclude/linux/crypto.h blkcipher_alg
1682!Finclude/linux/crypto.h cipher_alg
1683!Finclude/linux/crypto.h rng_alg
1684   </sect1>
1685   <sect1><title>Asynchronous Block Cipher API</title>
1686!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Asynchronous Block Cipher API
1687!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_alloc_ablkcipher
1688!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_free_ablkcipher
1689!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_has_ablkcipher
1690!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_ablkcipher_ivsize
1691!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_ablkcipher_blocksize
1692!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_ablkcipher_setkey
1693!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_ablkcipher_reqtfm
1694!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_ablkcipher_encrypt
1695!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_ablkcipher_decrypt
1696   </sect1>
1697   <sect1><title>Asynchronous Cipher Request Handle</title>
1698!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Asynchronous Cipher Request Handle
1699!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_ablkcipher_reqsize
1700!Finclude/linux/crypto.h ablkcipher_request_set_tfm
1701!Finclude/linux/crypto.h ablkcipher_request_alloc
1702!Finclude/linux/crypto.h ablkcipher_request_free
1703!Finclude/linux/crypto.h ablkcipher_request_set_callback
1704!Finclude/linux/crypto.h ablkcipher_request_set_crypt
1705   </sect1>
1706   <sect1><title>Authenticated Encryption With Associated Data (AEAD) Cipher API</title>
1707!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Authenticated Encryption With Associated Data (AEAD) Cipher API
1708!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_alloc_aead
1709!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_free_aead
1710!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_ivsize
1711!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_authsize
1712!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_blocksize
1713!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_setkey
1714!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_setauthsize
1715!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_encrypt
1716!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_decrypt
1717   </sect1>
1718   <sect1><title>Asynchronous AEAD Request Handle</title>
1719!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Asynchronous AEAD Request Handle
1720!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_aead_reqsize
1721!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_request_set_tfm
1722!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_request_alloc
1723!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_request_free
1724!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_request_set_callback
1725!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_request_set_crypt
1726!Finclude/linux/crypto.h aead_request_set_assoc
1727   </sect1>
1728   <sect1><title>Synchronous Block Cipher API</title>
1729!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Synchronous Block Cipher API
1730!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_alloc_blkcipher
1731!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_free_blkcipher
1732!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_has_blkcipher
1733!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_name
1734!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_ivsize
1735!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_blocksize
1736!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_setkey
1737!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_encrypt
1738!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_encrypt_iv
1739!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_decrypt
1740!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_decrypt_iv
1741!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_set_iv
1742!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_blkcipher_get_iv
1743   </sect1>
1744   <sect1><title>Single Block Cipher API</title>
1745!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Single Block Cipher API
1746!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_alloc_cipher
1747!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_free_cipher
1748!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_has_cipher
1749!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_cipher_blocksize
1750!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_cipher_setkey
1751!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_cipher_encrypt_one
1752!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_cipher_decrypt_one
1753   </sect1>
1754   <sect1><title>Synchronous Message Digest API</title>
1755!Pinclude/linux/crypto.h Synchronous Message Digest API
1756!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_alloc_hash
1757!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_free_hash
1758!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_has_hash
1759!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_hash_blocksize
1760!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_hash_digestsize
1761!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_hash_init
1762!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_hash_update
1763!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_hash_final
1764!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_hash_digest
1765!Finclude/linux/crypto.h crypto_hash_setkey
1766   </sect1>
1767   <sect1><title>Message Digest Algorithm Definitions</title>
1768!Pinclude/crypto/hash.h Message Digest Algorithm Definitions
1769!Finclude/crypto/hash.h hash_alg_common
1770!Finclude/crypto/hash.h ahash_alg
1771!Finclude/crypto/hash.h shash_alg
1772   </sect1>
1773   <sect1><title>Asynchronous Message Digest API</title>
1774!Pinclude/crypto/hash.h Asynchronous Message Digest API
1775!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_alloc_ahash
1776!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_free_ahash
1777!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_init
1778!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_digestsize
1779!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_reqtfm
1780!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_reqsize
1781!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_setkey
1782!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_finup
1783!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_final
1784!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_digest
1785!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_export
1786!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_ahash_import
1787   </sect1>
1788   <sect1><title>Asynchronous Hash Request Handle</title>
1789!Pinclude/crypto/hash.h Asynchronous Hash Request Handle
1790!Finclude/crypto/hash.h ahash_request_set_tfm
1791!Finclude/crypto/hash.h ahash_request_alloc
1792!Finclude/crypto/hash.h ahash_request_free
1793!Finclude/crypto/hash.h ahash_request_set_callback
1794!Finclude/crypto/hash.h ahash_request_set_crypt
1795   </sect1>
1796   <sect1><title>Synchronous Message Digest API</title>
1797!Pinclude/crypto/hash.h Synchronous Message Digest API
1798!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_alloc_shash
1799!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_free_shash
1800!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_blocksize
1801!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_digestsize
1802!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_descsize
1803!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_setkey
1804!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_digest
1805!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_export
1806!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_import
1807!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_init
1808!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_update
1809!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_final
1810!Finclude/crypto/hash.h crypto_shash_finup
1811   </sect1>
1812   <sect1><title>Crypto API Random Number API</title>
1813!Pinclude/crypto/rng.h Random number generator API
1814!Finclude/crypto/rng.h crypto_alloc_rng
1815!Finclude/crypto/rng.h crypto_rng_alg
1816!Finclude/crypto/rng.h crypto_free_rng
1817!Finclude/crypto/rng.h crypto_rng_get_bytes
1818!Finclude/crypto/rng.h crypto_rng_reset
1819!Finclude/crypto/rng.h crypto_rng_seedsize
1820!Cinclude/crypto/rng.h
1821   </sect1>
1822  </chapter>
1823
1824  <chapter id="Code"><title>Code Examples</title>
1825   <sect1><title>Code Example For Asynchronous Block Cipher Operation</title>
1826    <programlisting>
1827
1828struct tcrypt_result {
1829	struct completion completion;
1830	int err;
1831};
1832
1833/* tie all data structures together */
1834struct ablkcipher_def {
1835	struct scatterlist sg;
1836	struct crypto_ablkcipher *tfm;
1837	struct ablkcipher_request *req;
1838	struct tcrypt_result result;
1839};
1840
1841/* Callback function */
1842static void test_ablkcipher_cb(struct crypto_async_request *req, int error)
1843{
1844	struct tcrypt_result *result = req-&gt;data;
1845
1846	if (error == -EINPROGRESS)
1847		return;
1848	result-&gt;err = error;
1849	complete(&amp;result-&gt;completion);
1850	pr_info("Encryption finished successfully\n");
1851}
1852
1853/* Perform cipher operation */
1854static unsigned int test_ablkcipher_encdec(struct ablkcipher_def *ablk,
1855					   int enc)
1856{
1857	int rc = 0;
1858
1859	if (enc)
1860		rc = crypto_ablkcipher_encrypt(ablk-&gt;req);
1861	else
1862		rc = crypto_ablkcipher_decrypt(ablk-&gt;req);
1863
1864	switch (rc) {
1865	case 0:
1866		break;
1867	case -EINPROGRESS:
1868	case -EBUSY:
1869		rc = wait_for_completion_interruptible(
1870			&amp;ablk-&gt;result.completion);
1871		if (!rc &amp;&amp; !ablk-&gt;result.err) {
1872			reinit_completion(&amp;ablk-&gt;result.completion);
1873			break;
1874		}
1875	default:
1876		pr_info("ablkcipher encrypt returned with %d result %d\n",
1877		       rc, ablk-&gt;result.err);
1878		break;
1879	}
1880	init_completion(&amp;ablk-&gt;result.completion);
1881
1882	return rc;
1883}
1884
1885/* Initialize and trigger cipher operation */
1886static int test_ablkcipher(void)
1887{
1888	struct ablkcipher_def ablk;
1889	struct crypto_ablkcipher *ablkcipher = NULL;
1890	struct ablkcipher_request *req = NULL;
1891	char *scratchpad = NULL;
1892	char *ivdata = NULL;
1893	unsigned char key[32];
1894	int ret = -EFAULT;
1895
1896	ablkcipher = crypto_alloc_ablkcipher("cbc-aes-aesni", 0, 0);
1897	if (IS_ERR(ablkcipher)) {
1898		pr_info("could not allocate ablkcipher handle\n");
1899		return PTR_ERR(ablkcipher);
1900	}
1901
1902	req = ablkcipher_request_alloc(ablkcipher, GFP_KERNEL);
1903	if (IS_ERR(req)) {
1904		pr_info("could not allocate request queue\n");
1905		ret = PTR_ERR(req);
1906		goto out;
1907	}
1908
1909	ablkcipher_request_set_callback(req, CRYPTO_TFM_REQ_MAY_BACKLOG,
1910					test_ablkcipher_cb,
1911					&amp;ablk.result);
1912
1913	/* AES 256 with random key */
1914	get_random_bytes(&amp;key, 32);
1915	if (crypto_ablkcipher_setkey(ablkcipher, key, 32)) {
1916		pr_info("key could not be set\n");
1917		ret = -EAGAIN;
1918		goto out;
1919	}
1920
1921	/* IV will be random */
1922	ivdata = kmalloc(16, GFP_KERNEL);
1923	if (!ivdata) {
1924		pr_info("could not allocate ivdata\n");
1925		goto out;
1926	}
1927	get_random_bytes(ivdata, 16);
1928
1929	/* Input data will be random */
1930	scratchpad = kmalloc(16, GFP_KERNEL);
1931	if (!scratchpad) {
1932		pr_info("could not allocate scratchpad\n");
1933		goto out;
1934	}
1935	get_random_bytes(scratchpad, 16);
1936
1937	ablk.tfm = ablkcipher;
1938	ablk.req = req;
1939
1940	/* We encrypt one block */
1941	sg_init_one(&amp;ablk.sg, scratchpad, 16);
1942	ablkcipher_request_set_crypt(req, &amp;ablk.sg, &amp;ablk.sg, 16, ivdata);
1943	init_completion(&amp;ablk.result.completion);
1944
1945	/* encrypt data */
1946	ret = test_ablkcipher_encdec(&amp;ablk, 1);
1947	if (ret)
1948		goto out;
1949
1950	pr_info("Encryption triggered successfully\n");
1951
1952out:
1953	if (ablkcipher)
1954		crypto_free_ablkcipher(ablkcipher);
1955	if (req)
1956		ablkcipher_request_free(req);
1957	if (ivdata)
1958		kfree(ivdata);
1959	if (scratchpad)
1960		kfree(scratchpad);
1961	return ret;
1962}
1963    </programlisting>
1964   </sect1>
1965
1966   <sect1><title>Code Example For Synchronous Block Cipher Operation</title>
1967    <programlisting>
1968
1969static int test_blkcipher(void)
1970{
1971	struct crypto_blkcipher *blkcipher = NULL;
1972	char *cipher = "cbc(aes)";
1973	// AES 128
1974	charkey =
1975"\x12\x34\x56\x78\x90\xab\xcd\xef\x12\x34\x56\x78\x90\xab\xcd\xef";
1976	chariv =
1977"\x12\x34\x56\x78\x90\xab\xcd\xef\x12\x34\x56\x78\x90\xab\xcd\xef";
1978	unsigned int ivsize = 0;
1979	char *scratchpad = NULL; // holds plaintext and ciphertext
1980	struct scatterlist sg;
1981	struct blkcipher_desc desc;
1982	int ret = -EFAULT;
1983
1984	blkcipher = crypto_alloc_blkcipher(cipher, 0, 0);
1985	if (IS_ERR(blkcipher)) {
1986		printk("could not allocate blkcipher handle for %s\n", cipher);
1987		return -PTR_ERR(blkcipher);
1988	}
1989
1990	if (crypto_blkcipher_setkey(blkcipher, key, strlen(key))) {
1991		printk("key could not be set\n");
1992		ret = -EAGAIN;
1993		goto out;
1994	}
1995
1996	ivsize = crypto_blkcipher_ivsize(blkcipher);
1997	if (ivsize) {
1998		if (ivsize != strlen(iv))
1999			printk("IV length differs from expected length\n");
2000		crypto_blkcipher_set_iv(blkcipher, iv, ivsize);
2001	}
2002
2003	scratchpad = kmalloc(crypto_blkcipher_blocksize(blkcipher), GFP_KERNEL);
2004	if (!scratchpad) {
2005		printk("could not allocate scratchpad for %s\n", cipher);
2006		goto out;
2007	}
2008	/* get some random data that we want to encrypt */
2009	get_random_bytes(scratchpad, crypto_blkcipher_blocksize(blkcipher));
2010
2011	desc.flags = 0;
2012	desc.tfm = blkcipher;
2013	sg_init_one(&amp;sg, scratchpad, crypto_blkcipher_blocksize(blkcipher));
2014
2015	/* encrypt data in place */
2016	crypto_blkcipher_encrypt(&amp;desc, &amp;sg, &amp;sg,
2017				 crypto_blkcipher_blocksize(blkcipher));
2018
2019	/* decrypt data in place
2020	 * crypto_blkcipher_decrypt(&amp;desc, &amp;sg, &amp;sg,
2021	 */			 crypto_blkcipher_blocksize(blkcipher));
2022
2023
2024	printk("Cipher operation completed\n");
2025	return 0;
2026
2027out:
2028	if (blkcipher)
2029		crypto_free_blkcipher(blkcipher);
2030	if (scratchpad)
2031		kzfree(scratchpad);
2032	return ret;
2033}
2034    </programlisting>
2035   </sect1>
2036
2037   <sect1><title>Code Example For Use of Operational State Memory With SHASH</title>
2038    <programlisting>
2039
2040struct sdesc {
2041	struct shash_desc shash;
2042	char ctx[];
2043};
2044
2045static struct sdescinit_sdesc(struct crypto_shash *alg)
2046{
2047	struct sdescsdesc;
2048	int size;
2049
2050	size = sizeof(struct shash_desc) + crypto_shash_descsize(alg);
2051	sdesc = kmalloc(size, GFP_KERNEL);
2052	if (!sdesc)
2053		return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
2054	sdesc-&gt;shash.tfm = alg;
2055	sdesc-&gt;shash.flags = 0x0;
2056	return sdesc;
2057}
2058
2059static int calc_hash(struct crypto_shashalg,
2060		     const unsigned chardata, unsigned int datalen,
2061		     unsigned chardigest) {
2062	struct sdescsdesc;
2063	int ret;
2064
2065	sdesc = init_sdesc(alg);
2066	if (IS_ERR(sdesc)) {
2067		pr_info("trusted_key: can't alloc %s\n", hash_alg);
2068		return PTR_ERR(sdesc);
2069	}
2070
2071	ret = crypto_shash_digest(&amp;sdesc-&gt;shash, data, datalen, digest);
2072	kfree(sdesc);
2073	return ret;
2074}
2075    </programlisting>
2076   </sect1>
2077
2078   <sect1><title>Code Example For Random Number Generator Usage</title>
2079    <programlisting>
2080
2081static int get_random_numbers(u8 *buf, unsigned int len)
2082{
2083	struct crypto_rngrng = NULL;
2084	chardrbg = "drbg_nopr_sha256"; /* Hash DRBG with SHA-256, no PR */
2085	int ret;
2086
2087	if (!buf || !len) {
2088		pr_debug("No output buffer provided\n");
2089		return -EINVAL;
2090	}
2091
2092	rng = crypto_alloc_rng(drbg, 0, 0);
2093	if (IS_ERR(rng)) {
2094		pr_debug("could not allocate RNG handle for %s\n", drbg);
2095		return -PTR_ERR(rng);
2096	}
2097
2098	ret = crypto_rng_get_bytes(rng, buf, len);
2099	if (ret &lt; 0)
2100		pr_debug("generation of random numbers failed\n");
2101	else if (ret == 0)
2102		pr_debug("RNG returned no data");
2103	else
2104		pr_debug("RNG returned %d bytes of data\n", ret);
2105
2106out:
2107	crypto_free_rng(rng);
2108	return ret;
2109}
2110    </programlisting>
2111   </sect1>
2112  </chapter>
2113 </book>
2114