Re: [PATCH] mm: Add kvfree_sensitive() for freeing sensitive data objects

Joe Perches
2020-04-06T15:47:20Z

On Sun, 2020-04-05 at 22:37 -0400, Waiman Long wrote:
> For kvmalloc'ed data object that contains sensitive information like
> cryptographic key, we need to make sure that the buffer is always
> cleared before freeing it. Using memset() alone for buffer clearing may
> not provide certainty as the compiler may compile it away. To be sure,
> the special memzero_explicit() has to be used.
>
> This patch introduces a new kvfree_sensitive() for freeing those
> sensitive data objects allocated by kvmalloc(). The relevnat places
> where kvfree_sensitive() can be used are modified to use it.

Why isn't this called kvzfree like the existing kzfree?