netdev - Re: [PATCH iproute2-next v2] lib/bpf_legacy: Use userspace SHA-1 code instead of AF

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <20251217234447.GA89113@google.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2025 23:44:47 +0000
From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>
To: David Ahern <dsahern@...nel.org>
Cc: Stephen Hemminger <stephen@...workplumber.org>,
	linux-crypto@...r.kernel.org, Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org, bpf@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH iproute2-next v2] lib/bpf_legacy: Use userspace SHA-1
 code instead of AF_ALG

On Sun, Nov 16, 2025 at 10:45:47AM -0700, David Ahern wrote:
> On 11/11/25 9:07 PM, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > [Adding David Ahern.  I overlooked that iproute2 has separate
> > maintainers for the main tree and the next tree.]
> > 
> > On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 12:46:48PM -0700, Eric Biggers wrote:
> >> Add a basic SHA-1 implementation to lib/, and make lib/bpf_legacy.c use
> >> it to calculate SHA-1 digests instead of the previous AF_ALG-based code.
> >>
> >> This eliminates the dependency on AF_ALG, specifically the kernel config
> >> options CONFIG_CRYPTO_USER_API_HASH and CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA1.
> >>
> >> Over the years AF_ALG has been very problematic, and it is also not
> >> supported on all kernels.  Escalating to the kernel's privileged
> >> execution context merely to calculate software algorithms, which can be
> >> done in userspace instead, is not something that should have ever been
> >> supported.  Even on kernels that support it, the syscall overhead of
> >> AF_ALG means that it is often slower than userspace code.
> >>
> >> Let's do the right thing here, and allow people to disable AF_ALG
> >> support (or not enable it) on systems where iproute2 is the only user.
> >>
> >> Acked-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>
> >> Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>
> > 
> > Stephen and David, any interest in applying this patch?
> > 
> > - Eric
> 
> I do not have a strong opinion in either direction.
> 
> If we are going to entertain removing AF_ALG code, we should apply the
> patch to iproute2-next at the beginning of a dev cycle to give maximum
> time for testing before it rolls out.

Any insight into when that would be?

- Eric