linux-kernel - Re: Crypto test results unused?

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Message-ID: <20100112111439.GA31504@gondor.apana.org.au>
Date:	Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:14:39 +1100
From:	Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>
To:	Krzysztof Halasa <khc@...waw.pl>
Cc:	linux-crypto@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Crypto test results unused?

Krzysztof Halasa <khc@...waw.pl> wrote:
> 
> On little-endian IXP4xx 3 hardware-assisted algorithms fail (due to
> apparently unrelated bug which I will take care of). It seems the kernel
> is still using these failing algorithms (my debugging code adds extra
> fields to the /proc output):

How did you determine that it was still being used? When a kernel
user requests for an algorithm the system is supposed to skip
anything which failed the self-test.

> At this point alg->cra_flags includes CRYPTO_ALG_DEAD (due to failed
> test), but larval->alg.cra_flags has only the original flags (0x85).

CRYPTO_ALG_DEAD is used to mark algorithms deleted from the
system.  However, we don't delete algorithms just because they
fail the self-test.  They remain in the system so you can come
back and diagnose the problem.  They just aren't used by anyone.

Cheers,
-- 
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Email: Herbert Xu ~{PmV>HI~} <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>
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