[dm-devel] [RFC PATCH v2] crypto: Add IV generation algorithms

[Binoy Jayan]

Hi Herbert,

On 22 December 2016 at 14:25, Herbert Xu <herbert at gondor.apana.org.au> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 11:01:08AM +0100, Milan Broz wrote:
>>
>> By the move everything to cryptoAPI we are basically introducing some strange mix
>> of IV and modes there, I wonder how this is going to be maintained.
>> Anyway, Herbert should say if it is ok...
>
> Well there is precedent in how do the IPsec IV generation.  In
> that case the IV generators too are completely specific to that
> application, i.e., IPsec.  However, the way structured it allowed
> us to have one single entry path from the IPsec stack into the
> crypto layer regardless of whether you are using AEAD or traditional
> encryption/hashing algorithms.
>
> For IPsec we make the IV generators behave like normal AEAD
> algorithms, except that they take the sequence number as the IV.
>
> The goal here are obviously different.  However, by employing
> the same method as we do in IPsec, it appears to me that you
> can effectively process multiple blocks at once instead of having
> to supply one block at a time due to the IV generation issue.

Thank you for clarifying that part.:)
So, I hope we can consider algorithms like lmk and tcw too as IV generation
algorithms, even though they manipulate encrypted data directly?

>> I really do not think the disk encryption key management should be moved
>> outside of dm-crypt. We cannot then change key structure later easily.

I agree with this too, only problem with this is when multiple keys are involved
(where the master key is split into 2 or more), and the key selection is made
with a modular division of the (512-byte) sector number by the number of keys.

> It doesn't have to live outside of dm-crypt.  You can register
> these IV generators from there if you really want.

Sorry, but I didn't understand this part.

Thanks,
Binoy