* [PATCH] lib/crypto: chacha - Zeroize permuted_state before it leaves scope
@ 2026-03-26 3:29 Eric Biggers
0 siblings, 0 replies; only message in thread
From: Eric Biggers @ 2026-03-26 3:29 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: linux-crypto
Cc: linux-kernel, Ard Biesheuvel, Jason A . Donenfeld, Herbert Xu,
Theodore Ts'o, Eric Biggers, stable
Since the ChaCha permutation is invertible, the local variable
'permuted_state' is sufficient to compute the original 'state', and thus
the key, even after the permutation has been done.
While the kernel is quite inconsistent about zeroizing secrets on the
stack (and some prominent userspace crypto libraries don't bother at all
since it's not guaranteed to work anyway), the kernel does try to do it
as a best practice, especially in cases involving the RNG.
Thus, explicitly zeroize 'permuted_state' before it goes out of scope.
Fixes: c08d0e647305 ("crypto: chacha20 - Add a generic ChaCha20 stream cipher implementation")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
---
This patch is targeting libcrypto-fixes
lib/crypto/chacha-block-generic.c | 4 ++++
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
diff --git a/lib/crypto/chacha-block-generic.c b/lib/crypto/chacha-block-generic.c
index 77f68de71066..4a6d627580cb 100644
--- a/lib/crypto/chacha-block-generic.c
+++ b/lib/crypto/chacha-block-generic.c
@@ -85,10 +85,12 @@ void chacha_block_generic(struct chacha_state *state,
for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(state->x); i++)
put_unaligned_le32(permuted_state.x[i] + state->x[i],
&out[i * sizeof(u32)]);
state->x[12]++;
+
+ chacha_zeroize_state(&permuted_state);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(chacha_block_generic);
/**
* hchacha_block_generic - abbreviated ChaCha core, for XChaCha
@@ -108,7 +110,9 @@ void hchacha_block_generic(const struct chacha_state *state,
chacha_permute(&permuted_state, nrounds);
memcpy(&out[0], &permuted_state.x[0], 16);
memcpy(&out[4], &permuted_state.x[12], 16);
+
+ chacha_zeroize_state(&permuted_state);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(hchacha_block_generic);
base-commit: 0138af2472dfdef0d56fc4697416eaa0ff2589bd
--
2.53.0
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] only message in thread
only message in thread, other threads:[~2026-03-26 3:33 UTC | newest]
Thread overview: (only message) (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2026-03-26 3:29 [PATCH] lib/crypto: chacha - Zeroize permuted_state before it leaves scope Eric Biggers
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox