linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH AUTOSEL 5.10 021/101] fscrypt: allow 256-bit master keys with AES-256-XTS

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Date:   Mon, 8 Nov 2021 17:48:40 -0800
From:   Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>
To:     Sasha Levin <sashal@...nel.org>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, stable@...r.kernel.org,
        Paul Crowley <paulcrowley@...gle.com>, tytso@....edu,
        jaegeuk@...nel.org, corbet@....net, linux-fscrypt@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-doc@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH AUTOSEL 5.10 021/101] fscrypt: allow 256-bit master keys
 with AES-256-XTS

On Mon, Nov 08, 2021 at 12:47:11PM -0500, Sasha Levin wrote:
> From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...gle.com>
> 
> [ Upstream commit 7f595d6a6cdc336834552069a2e0a4f6d4756ddf ]
> 
> fscrypt currently requires a 512-bit master key when AES-256-XTS is
> used, since AES-256-XTS keys are 512-bit and fscrypt requires that the
> master key be at least as long any key that will be derived from it.
> 
> However, this is overly strict because AES-256-XTS doesn't actually have
> a 512-bit security strength, but rather 256-bit.  The fact that XTS
> takes twice the expected key size is a quirk of the XTS mode.  It is
> sufficient to use 256 bits of entropy for AES-256-XTS, provided that it
> is first properly expanded into a 512-bit key, which HKDF-SHA512 does.
> 
> Therefore, relax the check of the master key size to use the security
> strength of the derived key rather than the size of the derived key
> (except for v1 encryption policies, which don't use HKDF).
> 
> Besides making things more flexible for userspace, this is needed in
> order for the use of a KDF which only takes a 256-bit key to be
> introduced into the fscrypt key hierarchy.  This will happen with
> hardware-wrapped keys support, as all known hardware which supports that
> feature uses an SP800-108 KDF using AES-256-CMAC, so the wrapped keys
> are wrapped 256-bit AES keys.  Moreover, there is interest in fscrypt
> supporting the same type of AES-256-CMAC based KDF in software as an
> alternative to HKDF-SHA512.  There is no security problem with such
> features, so fix the key length check to work properly with them.
> 
> Reviewed-by: Paul Crowley <paulcrowley@...gle.com>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20210921030303.5598-1-ebiggers@kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...gle.com>
> Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@...nel.org>

I don't expect any problem with backporting this, but I don't see how this
follows the stable kernel rules (Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst).
I don't see what distinguishes this patch from ones that don't get picked up by
AUTOSEL; it seems pretty arbitrary to me.

- Eric