Re: [PATCH v2 0/7] Add KDF implementations to crypto API

Am Sonntag, 24. Januar 2021, 15:23:29 CET schrieb Ard Biesheuvel:

Hi Ard,

On Sun, 24 Jan 2021 at 15:10, Stephan Müller [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

Hi,

The key derviation functions are considered to be a cryptographic
operation. As cryptographic operations are provided via the kernel
crypto API, this patch set consolidates the KDF implementations into the
crypto API.

The KDF implementations are provided as service functions. Yet, the
interface to the two provided KDFs are identical with the goal to allow
them to be transformed into a crypto API template eventually.

Why? There are typically two reasons to use the crypto API abstractions:
- the algorithm is not known at compile time, so we need the runtime
dispatch that the crypto API implements,
- the algorithm may be implemented by a h/w accelerator which is
discovered at runtime via the driver stack

In other cases, a library API is much more suitable, even in the case
where we may provide arch-specific accelerated implementations of such
an algorithm.

In case your "why" refers to why I stated that the KDF implementations are 
similar to eventually consolidate them into a template eventually:

A KDF is conceptually a logic on top of a (hash) algorithm like a block 
chaining mode on top of a block cipher or a deterministic RNG on top of an 
underlying cipher.

So, conceptually with the kernel crypto API, we would have a KDF template that 
can be used like hkdf(sha256) or hkdf(sha256-avx2).

The behavior of a KDF is identical to a deterministic RNG. Thus, a long time 
ago, I had a patch developed that adds a very small addition to the existing 
RNG API to allow the KDFs to be used. See [1]. Yet, that was not desired at 
the time due to different reasons.

Yet, the crypto API as it stands today knows of templates and basic 
algorithms. Having a separate library API providing a crypto algorithm is new 
to the crypto API. You see that with the test manager which works well with 
the templates / algorithms but does not provide any helpers for some "library 
APIs".



In case your "why" refers to whether I am not using a template to begin with:

Some time back I provided the patch using a template (see [1] for example). At 
that time, Herbert wanted to have a service API instead.

[1] http://www.chronox.de/kdf.html

Ciao
Stephan