Re: [PATCH] crypto: af_alg - Document the deprecation of AF_ALG
From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
Date: 2026-06-23 16:51:08
Also in:
linux-bluetooth, linux-crypto, linux-doc, lkml, netdev
On Tue, Jun 23, 2026 at 02:44:28PM +0200, Bastien Nocera wrote:
Hey, Replying to this older patch. On Wed, 2026-04-29 at 18:15 -0700, Eric Biggers wrote: <snip>quoted
This isn't intended to change anything overnight. After all, most Linux distros won't be able to disable the kconfig options quite yet, mainly because of iwd. But this should create a bit more impetus for these userspace programs to be fixed, and the documentation update should also help prevent more users from appearing.There are 2 other users that I know of: bluez, and the ell library (used by iwd and bluez). From what I could tell, bluetoothd uses AF_ALG for cryptography: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/bluetooth/bluez.git/tree/src/shared/crypto.c https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/bluetooth/bluez.git/tree/tools/mesh-gatt/crypto.c It uses "ecb(aes)" and "cmac(aes)" as algorithms. Finally, it also uses them both again: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/bluetooth/bluez.git/tree/mesh/crypto.c through ell: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/libs/ell/ell.git/tree/ell/cipher.c Because that's a question that also came up, bluetoothd also uses the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability. I'll let Luiz and Marcel take it over from here.
We're aware of that and are taking it into account in the allowlist: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-crypto/20260622234803.6982-1-ebiggers@kernel.org/ (local) If you have any feedback on the allowlist, please respond to that patch. - Eric