Re: [PATCH] crypto: af_alg - Document the deprecation of AF_ALG

Bastien Nocera <[email protected]> Tue, 23 Jun 2026 14:44:28 +0200
Newsgroups dev.linux.lists.ell,org.kernel.vger.linux-api,org.kernel.vger.linux-bluetooth,org.kernel.vger.linux-crypto,org.kernel.vger.linux-doc,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kernel.vger.netdev
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hey,

Replying to this older patch.

On Wed, 2026-04-29 at 18:15 -0700, Eric Biggers wrote:
<snip>
> This isn't intended to change anything overnight.=C2=A0 After all, most L=
inux
> distros won't be able to disable the kconfig options quite yet, mainly
> because of iwd.=C2=A0 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/cry=
pto.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.

Cheers