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Eric Biggers ffdd2bc378 crypto: af_alg - Remove zero-copy support from skcipher and aead
The zero-copy support is one of the riskiest aspects of AF_ALG.  It
allows userspace to request cryptographic operations directly on
pagecache pages of files like the 'su' binary.  It also allows userspace
to concurrently modify the memory which is being operated on, a recipe
for TOCTOU vulnerabilities.

While zero-copy support is more valuable in other areas of the kernel
like the frequently used networking and file I/O code, it has far less
value in AF_ALG, which is a niche UAPI.  AF_ALG primarily just exists
for backwards compatibility with a small set of userspace programs such
as 'iwd' that haven't yet been fixed to use userspace crypto code.

Originally AF_ALG was intended to be used to access hardware crypto
accelerators.  However, it isn't an efficient interface for that anyway,
and it turned out to be rarely used in this way in practice.

Thus, the risks of the zero-copy support in AF_ALG vastly outweigh its
benefits.  Let's just remove it.

This commit removes it from the "skcipher" and "aead" algorithm types.
"hash" will be handled separately.

This is a soft break, not a hard break.  Even after this commit, it
still works to use splice() or sendfile() to transfer data to an AF_ALG
request socket from a pipe or any file, respectively.  What changes is
just that the kernel now makes an internal, stable copy of the data
before doing the crypto operation.  So performance is slightly reduced,
but the UAPI isn't broken.  And, very importantly, it's much safer.

Tested with libkcapi/test.sh.  All its test cases still pass.  I also
verified that this would have prevented the copy.fail exploit as well.
I also used a custom test program to verify that sendfile() still works.

Fixes: 8ff590903d ("crypto: algif_skcipher - User-space interface for skcipher operations")
Fixes: 400c40cf78 ("crypto: algif - add AEAD support")
Reported-by: Taeyang Lee <0wn@theori.io>
Link: https://copy.fail/
Reported-by: Feng Ning <feng@innora.ai>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/r/afYcc-tZFwvZZo76@ans-MacBook-Pro.local
Reviewed-by: Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
History 2026-05-15 18:08:37 +08:00
arch crypto: drbg - Remove support for HASH_DRBG 2026-05-07 16:10:00 +08:00
block block: only restrict bio allocation gfp mask asked to block 2026-04-21 11:42:12 -06:00
certs Clang build fixes for 7.1 2026-04-24 09:29:51 -07:00
crypto crypto: af_alg - Remove zero-copy support from skcipher and aead 2026-05-15 18:08:37 +08:00
Documentation crypto: af_alg - Remove zero-copy support from skcipher and aead 2026-05-15 18:08:37 +08:00
drivers crypto: ccp - Treat zero-length cert chain as query for blob lengths 2026-05-15 18:08:37 +08:00
fs Description for this pull request: 2026-05-02 12:25:57 -07:00
include crypto: drbg - Eliminate use of 'drbg_string' and lists 2026-05-07 16:10:01 +08:00
init memblock: updates for 7.0-rc1 2026-04-18 11:29:14 -07:00
io_uring io_uring-7.1-20260430 2026-05-01 11:01:31 -07:00
ipc Convert 'alloc_obj' family to use the new default GFP_KERNEL argument 2026-02-21 17:09:51 -08:00
kernel Fix lockup in requeue-PI during signal/timeout wakeups, 2026-05-03 08:17:09 -07:00
lib rhashtable: Add bucket_table_free_atomic() helper 2026-05-05 16:12:07 +08:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add modern form of the LGPL-2.1 tags to the usage guide section 2025-10-22 07:58:19 +02:00
mm mm/slab: Add kvfree_atomic() helper 2026-05-05 16:12:07 +08:00
net net/sched: cls_flower: revert unintended changes 2026-04-30 13:47:01 +02:00
rust Char/Misc/IIO/and others driver updates for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-24 13:23:50 -07:00
samples soc: drivers for 7.1 2026-04-16 20:34:34 -07:00
scripts First round of Kbuild fixes for 7.1 2026-04-25 17:04:15 -07:00
security selinux: fix avdcache auditing 2026-04-28 18:13:58 -04:00
sound ALSA: hda/tas2781: Fix incorrect bit update for non-book-zero or book 0 pages >1 2026-04-29 07:51:17 +02:00
tools crypto: drbg - Fold include/crypto/drbg.h into crypto/drbg.c 2026-05-07 16:09:59 +08:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt Arm: 2026-04-17 07:18:03 -07:00
.clang-format Devicetree updates for v7.0: 2026-02-11 18:27:08 -08:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.editorconfig editorconfig: add rst extension 2026-01-26 19:07:09 -08:00
.get_maintainer.ignore .get_maintainer.ignore: add myself 2026-04-02 16:48:25 +02:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore kbuild: rust: provide an option to inline C helpers into Rust 2026-03-30 02:03:52 +02:00
.mailmap drm fixes for 7.1-rc2 2026-05-01 16:56:08 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS Delete some obsolete networking code 2026-04-24 09:41:58 -07:00
Kbuild checksyscalls: move instance functionality into generic code 2026-04-05 09:21:32 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS drm fixes for 7.1-rc2 2026-05-01 16:56:08 -07:00
Makefile Linux 7.1-rc2 2026-05-03 14:21:25 -07:00
README docs: add AI Coding Assistants documentation 2026-01-06 14:55:06 -07:00

Linux kernel
============

The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware,
system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software.

Quick Start
-----------

* Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
* Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org
* Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst
* Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/

Essential Documentation
-----------------------

All users should be familiar with:

* Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst
* Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst
* License: See COPYING

Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/


Who Are You?
============

Find your role below:

* New Kernel Developer - Getting started with kernel development
* Academic Researcher - Studying kernel internals and architecture
* Security Expert - Hardening and vulnerability analysis
* Backport/Maintenance Engineer - Maintaining stable kernels
* System Administrator - Configuring and troubleshooting
* Maintainer - Leading subsystems and reviewing patches
* Hardware Vendor - Writing drivers for new hardware
* Distribution Maintainer - Packaging kernels for distros
* AI Coding Assistant - LLMs and AI-powered development tools


For Specific Users
==================

New Kernel Developer
--------------------

Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here:

* Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst
* Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
* Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
* Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst
* Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
* Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst
* Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst

Academic Researcher
-------------------

Explore the kernel's architecture and internals:

* Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst
* Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst
* Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst
* Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst
* Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
* RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst
* Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst
* Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst

Security Expert
---------------

Security documentation and hardening guides:

* Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst
* LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst
* Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst
* Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst
* CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst
* Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst
* Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst

Backport/Maintenance Engineer
-----------------------------

Maintain and stabilize kernel versions:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst
* Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst
* Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

System Administrator
--------------------

Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems:

* Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst
* Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst
* Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
* Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst

Maintainer
----------

Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions:

* Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
* Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst
* Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst
* Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst
* Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst
* Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

Hardware Vendor
---------------

Write drivers and support new hardware:

* Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst
* Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst
* Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst
* Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst
* Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/
* Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst
* DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst

Distribution Maintainer
-----------------------

Package and distribute the kernel:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README
* Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst
* Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

AI Coding Assistant
-------------------

CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and
follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux
kernel:

* Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst

This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution,
and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with.


Communication and Support
=========================

* Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/
* IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net
* Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/
* MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists
* Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst