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From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
To: linux-crypto@vger.kernel.org, Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Stephan Mueller <smueller@chronox.de>,
	"Jason A . Donenfeld" <Jason@zx2c4.com>,
	Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 34/38] crypto: drbg - Include get_random_bytes() output in additional input
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:34:18 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260420063422.324906-35-ebiggers@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260420063422.324906-1-ebiggers@kernel.org>

Woodage & Shumow (2018) (https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/349.pdf) showed
that contrary to the claims made by NIST in SP800-90A, HMAC_DRBG doesn't
satisfy the formal definition of forward secrecy (i.e. "backtracking
resistance") when it's called with an empty additional input string.

The actual attack seems pretty benign, as it doesn't actually give the
attacker any previous RNG output, but rather just allows them to test
whether their guess of the previous block of RNG output is correct.
Regardless, it's an annoying design flaw, and it's yet another example
of why NIST's DRBGs aren't all that great.

Meanwhile, the kernel's HMAC_DRBG code also tries to reseed itself
automatically after random.c has reseeded itself.  But the
implementation is buggy, as it just checks whether 300 seconds have
elapsed, rather than looking at the actual generation counter.

Let's just follow the example of BoringSSL and use the conservative
approach of always including 32 bytes of "regular" random data in the
additional input string.  This fixes both issues described above.

This does reduce performance.  But this should be tolerable, since:

  - Due to earlier changes, the kernel code that was previously using
    drbg.c regardless of FIPS mode is now using it only in FIPS mode.

  - The additional input string is processed only once per request.  So
    if a lot of bytes are generated at once, the cost is amortized.

  - The NIST DRBGs are notoriously slow anyway.

Note that this fix should have no impact (either positive or negative)
on FIPS 140 certifiability.  From FIPS's point of view the code added by
this commit simply doesn't matter: it adds zero entropy to something
that doesn't need to contain entropy.

Fixes: 541af946fe13 ("crypto: drbg - SP800-90A Deterministic Random Bit Generator")
Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
---
 crypto/drbg.c | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/crypto/drbg.c b/crypto/drbg.c
index b2af481aef01..cda79d601f4f 100644
--- a/crypto/drbg.c
+++ b/crypto/drbg.c
@@ -191,17 +191,36 @@ static void drbg_hmac_update(struct drbg_state *drbg,
 
 /* generate function of HMAC DRBG as defined in 10.1.2.5 */
 static void drbg_hmac_generate(struct drbg_state *drbg,
 			       unsigned char *buf,
 			       unsigned int buflen,
-			       const u8 *addtl, size_t addtl_len)
+			       const u8 *addtl1, size_t addtl1_len)
 {
 	int len = 0;
+	u8 addtl2[32];
+	size_t addtl2_len = 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * Append some bytes from get_random_bytes() to the additional input
+	 * string, except when in test mode (as it would break the tests).
+	 * Using a nonempty additional input string works around the forward
+	 * secrecy bug in HMAC_DRBG described by Woodage & Shumow (2018)
+	 * (https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/349.pdf).  Filling the string with
+	 * get_random_bytes() rather than a fixed value is safer still, and in
+	 * particular makes random.c reseeds be immediately reflected.
+	 *
+	 * Note that there's no need to pull bytes from jitterentropy here too,
+	 * since FIPS doesn't require any entropy in the additional input.
+	 */
+	if (drbg->test_entropylen == 0) {
+		get_random_bytes(addtl2, sizeof(addtl2));
+		addtl2_len = sizeof(addtl2);
+	}
 
 	/* 10.1.2.5 step 2 */
-	if (addtl_len)
-		drbg_hmac_update(drbg, addtl, addtl_len, NULL, 0);
+	if (addtl1_len || addtl2_len)
+		drbg_hmac_update(drbg, addtl1, addtl1_len, addtl2, addtl2_len);
 
 	while (len < buflen) {
 		unsigned int outlen = 0;
 
 		/* 10.1.2.5 step 4.1 */
@@ -213,11 +232,13 @@ static void drbg_hmac_generate(struct drbg_state *drbg,
 		memcpy(buf + len, drbg->V, outlen);
 		len += outlen;
 	}
 
 	/* 10.1.2.5 step 6 */
-	drbg_hmac_update(drbg, addtl, addtl_len, NULL, 0);
+	drbg_hmac_update(drbg, addtl1, addtl1_len, addtl2, addtl2_len);
+
+	memzero_explicit(addtl2, sizeof(addtl2));
 }
 
 static inline void __drbg_seed(struct drbg_state *drbg,
 			       const u8 *seed1, size_t seed1_len,
 			       const u8 *seed2, size_t seed2_len,
-- 
2.53.0


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-04-20  6:37 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 50+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-04-20  6:33 [PATCH 00/38] Fix and simplify the NIST DRBG implementation Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 01/38] crypto: drbg - Fix returning success on failure in CTR_DRBG Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 02/38] crypto: drbg - Fix misaligned writes in CTR_DRBG and HASH_DRBG Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 03/38] crypto: drbg - Fix ineffective sanity check Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 04/38] crypto: drbg - Fix drbg_max_addtl() on 64-bit kernels Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 05/38] crypto: drbg - Fix the fips_enabled priority boost Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 06/38] crypto: drbg - Remove always-enabled symbol CRYPTO_DRBG_HMAC Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 07/38] crypto: drbg - Remove broken commented-out code Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 08/38] crypto: drbg - Remove unhelpful helper functions Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 09/38] crypto: drbg - Remove obsolete FIPS 140-2 continuous test Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 10/38] crypto: drbg - Fold include/crypto/drbg.h into crypto/drbg.c Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 11/38] crypto: drbg - Remove import of crypto_cipher functions Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 12/38] crypto: drbg - Remove support for CTR_DRBG Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  8:07   ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2026-04-20 14:40   ` Stephan Mueller
2026-04-20 17:47     ` Eric Biggers
2026-04-20 19:54       ` Stephan Mueller
2026-04-20 20:56         ` Eric Biggers
2026-04-20 20:58           ` Stephan Mueller
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 13/38] crypto: drbg - Remove support for HASH_DRBG Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 14/38] crypto: drbg - Flatten the DRBG menu Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:33 ` [PATCH 15/38] crypto: testmgr - Add test for drbg_pr_hmac_sha512 Eric Biggers
2026-04-20 16:04   ` Joachim Vandersmissen
2026-04-20 17:06     ` Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 16/38] crypto: testmgr - Update test for drbg_nopr_hmac_sha512 Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 17/38] crypto: drbg - Remove support for HMAC-SHA256 and HMAC-SHA384 Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 18/38] crypto: drbg - Simplify algorithm registration Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 19/38] crypto: drbg - De-virtualize drbg_state_ops Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 20/38] crypto: drbg - Move fixed values into constants Eric Biggers
2026-04-20 16:06   ` Joachim Vandersmissen
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 21/38] crypto: drbg - Embed V and C into struct drbg_state Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 22/38] crypto: drbg - Use HMAC-SHA512 library API Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 23/38] crypto: drbg - Remove drbg_core Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 24/38] crypto: drbg - Install separate seed functions for pr and nopr Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 25/38] crypto: drbg - Move module aliases to end of file Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 26/38] crypto: drbg - Consolidate "instantiate" logic and remove drbg_state::C Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 27/38] crypto: drbg - Eliminate use of 'drbg_string' and lists Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 28/38] crypto: drbg - Simplify drbg_generate_long() and fold into caller Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 29/38] crypto: drbg - Put rng_alg methods in logical order Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 30/38] crypto: drbg - Fold drbg_instantiate() into drbg_kcapi_seed() Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 31/38] crypto: drbg - Separate "reseed" case in drbg_kcapi_seed() Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 32/38] crypto: drbg - Fold drbg_prepare_hrng() into drbg_kcapi_seed() Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 33/38] crypto: drbg - Simplify "uninstantiate" logic Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` Eric Biggers [this message]
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 35/38] crypto: drbg - Change DRBG_MAX_REQUESTS to 4096 Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 36/38] crypto: drbg - Remove redundant reseeding based on random.c state Eric Biggers
2026-04-20 16:48   ` Joachim Vandersmissen
2026-04-20 17:25     ` Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 37/38] crypto: drbg - Clean up generation code Eric Biggers
2026-04-20  6:34 ` [PATCH 38/38] crypto: drbg - Clean up loop in drbg_hmac_update() Eric Biggers

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