Re: [PATCH v13 11/12] x509, pkcs7: Limit crypto combinations that may be used for module signing

Eric Biggers
2026-01-20T22:14:52Z

On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 02:50:57PM +0000, David Howells wrote:
> Limit the set of crypto combinations that may be used for module signing as
> no indication of hash algorithm used for signing is added to the hash of
> the data, so in theory a data blob hashed with a different algorithm can be
> substituted provided it has the same hash output.
>
> This also rejects the use of less secure algorithms.
>
> Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
> cc: Lukas Wunner <lukas@wunner.de>
> cc: Ignat Korchagin <ignat@cloudflare.com>
> cc: Stephan Mueller <smueller@chronox.de>
> cc: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
> cc: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
> cc: keyrings@vger.kernel.org
> cc: linux-crypto@vger.kernel.org
> ---
> crypto/asymmetric_keys/public_key.c | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
> 1 file changed, 53 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/crypto/asymmetric_keys/public_key.c b/crypto/asymmetric_keys/public_key.c
> index 13a5616becaa..90b98e1a952d 100644
> --- a/crypto/asymmetric_keys/public_key.c
> +++ b/crypto/asymmetric_keys/public_key.c
> @@ -24,6 +24,52 @@ MODULE_DESCRIPTION("In-software asymmetric public-key subtype");
> MODULE_AUTHOR("Red Hat, Inc.");
> MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
>
> +struct public_key_restriction {
> + const char *pkey_algo; /* Signing algorithm (e.g. "rsa") */
> + const char *pkey_enc; /* Signature encoding (e.g. "pkcs1") */
> + const char *hash_algo; /* Content hash algorithm (e.g. "sha256") */
> +};
> +
> +static const struct public_key_restriction public_key_restrictions[] = {
> + /* algo encoding hash */
> + { "rsa", "pkcs1", "sha256" },
> + { "rsa", "pkcs1", "sha384" },
> + { "rsa", "pkcs1", "sha512" },
> + { "rsa", "emsa-pss", "sha512" },
> + { "ecdsa", "x962", "sha256" },
> + { "ecdsa", "x962", "sha384" },
> + { "ecdsa", "x962", "sha512" },
> + { "ecrdsa", "raw", "sha256" },
> + { "ecrdsa", "raw", "sha384" },
> + { "ecrdsa", "raw", "sha512" },
> + { "mldsa44", "raw", "sha512" },
> + { "mldsa65", "raw", "sha512" },
> + { "mldsa87", "raw", "sha512" },
> + /* ML-DSA may also do its own hashing over the entire message. */
> + { "mldsa44", "raw", "-" },
> + { "mldsa65", "raw", "-" },
> + { "mldsa87", "raw", "-" },
> +};

Have you read software_key_determine_akcipher()? It's the place where
the encoding and hash_algo are validated currently. This commit adds a
second set of slightly different checks alongside the existing ones.
It's unclear whether the existing checks were considered.

Also, the ML-DSA and RSASSA-PSS support is new in this patchset, and
this commit is a fix for it. Instead of committing buggy code that is
fixed by a later commit, it's preferable to commit correct code in the
first place.

- Eric