From: Daniel Hodges <hodgesd@meta.com>
To: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>,
Lukas Wunner <lukas@wunner.de>,
Ignat Korchagin <ignat@cloudflare.com>,
Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>,
"David S . Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>
Cc: <keyrings@vger.kernel.org>, <linux-crypto@vger.kernel.org>,
<linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, Daniel Hodges <hodgesd@meta.com>
Subject: [PATCH] crypto: pkcs7 - use constant-time digest comparison
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2026 19:55:03 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260201035503.3945067-1-hodgesd@meta.com> (raw)
Replace memcmp() with crypto_memneq() when comparing message digests
during PKCS#7 signature verification.
memcmp() is not constant-time and returns early on the first byte
mismatch. This creates a timing side-channel that could allow an
attacker to forge valid signatures by measuring verification time
and recovering the expected digest value byte-by-byte.
crypto_memneq() performs a constant-time comparison, eliminating
the timing oracle.
This affects all users of PKCS#7 signature verification including:
- Kernel module signature verification (CONFIG_MODULE_SIG)
- Firmware signature verification
- Kexec image signature verification
- IMA appraisal
Fixes: 9f0d33146e2a ("PKCS#7: Digest the data in a signed-data message")
Signed-off-by: Daniel Hodges <hodgesd@meta.com>
---
crypto/asymmetric_keys/pkcs7_verify.c | 5 +++--
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/crypto/asymmetric_keys/pkcs7_verify.c b/crypto/asymmetric_keys/pkcs7_verify.c
index 6d6475e3a9bf..c69cd240bd7e 100644
--- a/crypto/asymmetric_keys/pkcs7_verify.c
+++ b/crypto/asymmetric_keys/pkcs7_verify.c
@@ -4,20 +4,21 @@
* Copyright (C) 2012 Red Hat, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
* Written by David Howells (dhowells@redhat.com)
*/
#define pr_fmt(fmt) "PKCS7: "fmt
#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/export.h>
#include <linux/slab.h>
#include <linux/err.h>
#include <linux/asn1.h>
+#include <crypto/utils.h>
#include <crypto/hash.h>
#include <crypto/hash_info.h>
#include <crypto/public_key.h>
#include "pkcs7_parser.h"
/*
* Digest the relevant parts of the PKCS#7 data
*/
static int pkcs7_digest(struct pkcs7_message *pkcs7,
struct pkcs7_signed_info *sinfo)
@@ -78,22 +79,22 @@ static int pkcs7_digest(struct pkcs7_message *pkcs7,
goto error;
}
if (sinfo->msgdigest_len != sig->digest_size) {
pr_warn("Sig %u: Invalid digest size (%u)\n",
sinfo->index, sinfo->msgdigest_len);
ret = -EBADMSG;
goto error;
}
- if (memcmp(sig->digest, sinfo->msgdigest,
- sinfo->msgdigest_len) != 0) {
+ if (crypto_memneq(sig->digest, sinfo->msgdigest,
+ sinfo->msgdigest_len)) {
pr_warn("Sig %u: Message digest doesn't match\n",
sinfo->index);
ret = -EKEYREJECTED;
goto error;
}
/* We then calculate anew, using the authenticated attributes
* as the contents of the digest instead. Note that we need to
* convert the attributes from a CONT.0 into a SET before we
* hash it.
--
2.47.3
next reply other threads:[~2026-02-01 3:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-02-01 3:55 Daniel Hodges [this message]
2026-02-01 4:41 ` [PATCH] crypto: pkcs7 - use constant-time digest comparison Eric Biggers
2026-02-01 10:55 ` Ignat Korchagin
2026-02-01 13:07 ` Daniel Hodges
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