Subject: Re: [PATCH] crypto: crypto4xx - Remove insecure and unused rng_alg

From: Eric Biggers <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 May 2026 12:26:30 -0700

On Sat, May 30, 2026 at 05:05:19PM +0200, Aleksander Jan Bajkowski wrote:
> Hi Eric,
> 
> On 30/05/2026 00:04, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > Remove crypto4xx_rng, as it is insecure and unused:
> > 
> > - It has only a 64-bit security strength, which is highly inadequate.
> >    This can be seen by the fact that crypto4xx_hw_init() seeds it with
> >    only 64 bits of entropy, and the fact that the original commit
> >    mentions that it implements ANSI X9.17 Annex C.
> 
> In addition to a seed, the PRNG also uses ring oscillators as sources of
> entropy. The entropy should be higher than 64b. This is the Rambus EIP-73d
> IP core. The same IP core is built into eip93 (EIP-73a), eip97 (EIP-73d),
> and eip197 (EIP-73d). You can find the documentation online. The complete
> "container" is actually Rambus EIP-94, and one of its parts is EIP-73d.

Just because it may have another source of entropy doesn't mean its
security strength is higher than 64 bits.

I cannot find any documentation other than
https://datasheet.octopart.com/PPC460EX-SUB800T-AMCC-datasheet-11553412.pdf
which says "ANSI X9.17 Annex C compliant using a DES algorithm".

DES actually has a 56-bit key, so maybe I was over-generous.

And according to https://cacr.uwaterloo.ca/hac/about/chap5.pdf ANSI
X9.17 has only a 64-bit state anyway.  So even if we assume the
datasheet is incorrect and the algorithm is actually 3DES which has a
longer key, the state is likely still 64-bit.

So it isn't looking good.  And since it's an undocumented proprietary
design it shouldn't be given the benefit of the doubt either.

> This PRNG is also used internally for Generation IV with IPSEC offload. The
> IPSEC offload implementation for eip93 was recently submitted to upstream.
> I am not sure whether eip94 shares some of the logic for IPSEC offload and
> it will be possible to use some of the code.

That's not related to this patch.

- Eric