Re: [PATCH v2 1/4] siphash: add cryptographically secure hashtable function

Hannes Frederic Sowa
2016-12-14T11:31:18Z

Hello,

On 14.12.2016 04:59, Jason A. Donenfeld wrote:
> SipHash is a 64-bit keyed hash function that is actually a
> cryptographically secure PRF, like HMAC. Except SipHash is super fast,
> and is meant to be used as a hashtable keyed lookup function.

Can you show or cite benchmarks in comparison with jhash? Last time I
looked, especially for short inputs, siphash didn't beat jhash (also on
all the 32 bit devices etc.).

> SipHash isn't just some new trendy hash function. It's been around for a
> while, and there really isn't anything that comes remotely close to
> being useful in the way SipHash is. With that said, why do we need this?
>
> There are a variety of attacks known as "hashtable poisoning" in which an
> attacker forms some data such that the hash of that data will be the
> same, and then preceeds to fill up all entries of a hashbucket. This is
> a realistic and well-known denial-of-service vector.

This pretty much depends on the linearity of the hash function? I don't
think a crypto secure hash function is needed for a hash table. Albeit I
agree that siphash certainly looks good to be used here.

> Linux developers already seem to be aware that this is an issue, and
> various places that use hash tables in, say, a network context, use a
> non-cryptographically secure function (usually jhash) and then try to
> twiddle with the key on a time basis (or in many cases just do nothing
> and hope that nobody notices). While this is an admirable attempt at
> solving the problem, it doesn't actually fix it. SipHash fixes it.

I am pretty sure that SipHash still needs a random key per hash table
also. So far it was only the choice of hash function you are questioning.

> (It fixes it in such a sound way that you could even build a stream
> cipher out of SipHash that would resist the modern cryptanalysis.)
>
> There are a modicum of places in the kernel that are vulnerable to
> hashtable poisoning attacks, either via userspace vectors or network
> vectors, and there's not a reliable mechanism inside the kernel at the
> moment to fix it. The first step toward fixing these issues is actually
> getting a secure primitive into the kernel for developers to use. Then
> we can, bit by bit, port things over to it as deemed appropriate.

Hmm, I tried to follow up with all the HashDoS work and so far didn't
see any HashDoS attacks against the Jenkins/SpookyHash family.

If this is an issue we might need to also put those changes into stable.

> Dozens of languages are already using this internally for their hash
> tables. Some of the BSDs already use this in their kernels. SipHash is
> a widely known high-speed solution to a widely known problem, and it's
> time we catch-up.

Bye,
Hannes