[PATCH v3 00/10] crypto: Provide a function for zeroizing crypto_aes_ctx

Thomas Huth <[email protected]> Wed, 5 Aug 2026 13:57:38 +0200
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.linux-crypto,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Several crypto drivers need to zeroize their local crypto_aes_ctx
structures after use to avoid leaking key material on the stack.
Currently some call sites do this with their own memzero_explicit()
call, which is error-prone since it is easy to miss a return path
(what already happened in a driver). Some other call sites miss
to clear crypto_aes_ctx completely.

To improve this situation, the first patch introduces an aes_zeroize_ctx()
helper that can be used with __cleanup() to automatically zeroize the
context when it goes out of scope. The following 6 patches add this
__cleanup() to spots in the code where this has been forgotten so far.
The final patches change some files to do the zeroization with
the new __cleanup() way instead of calling memzero_explicit() manually.

v3:
- Renamed aes_clear_ctx() to aes_zeroize_ctx()
- Split up the safeexcel patch to rework safexcel_aead_setkey in a
  separate patch
- Removed goto in the padlock patch

v2:
- Rebased onto cryptodev master branch, updated the "qat" patch accordingly


Thomas Huth (10):
  crypto: Provide a wrapper function for zeroizing crypto_aes_ctx
  crypto: aspeed - clear the crypto_aes_ctx when done
  crypto: inside-secure/eip93 - clear the crypto_aes_ctx when done
  crypto: padlock-aes - clear the crypto_aes_ctx when done
  crypto: sa2ul - clear the crypto_aes_ctx when done
  crypto: arm/aes-neonbs - clear the crypto_aes_ctx when done
  crypto: arm64/aes-neonbs - clear the crypto_aes_ctx when done
  crypto: qat - zeroize crypto_aes_ctx with __cleanup(aes_zeroize_ctx)
  crypto: safexcel - Rework cleanup of sensitive structs in
    safexcel_aead_setkey
  crypto: safexcel - zeroize crypto_aes_ctx with
    __cleanup(aes_zeroize_ctx)

 arch/arm/crypto/aes-neonbs-glue.c             |  2 +-
 arch/arm64/crypto/aes-neonbs-glue.c           |  2 +-
 drivers/crypto/aspeed/aspeed-hace-crypto.c    |  3 +-
 .../crypto/inside-secure/eip93/eip93-aead.c   |  2 +-
 .../crypto/inside-secure/eip93/eip93-cipher.c |  2 +-
 .../crypto/inside-secure/safexcel_cipher.c    | 40 +++++++------------
 drivers/crypto/inside-secure/safexcel_hash.c  |  3 +-
 .../crypto/intel/qat/qat_common/qat_algs.c    |  3 +-
 drivers/crypto/padlock-aes.c                  | 22 +++++-----
 drivers/crypto/sa2ul.c                        |  2 +-
 include/crypto/aes.h                          | 13 ++++++
 11 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 48 deletions(-)

-- 
2.55.0