Subject: Re: [PATCH ipsec-next] xfrm: add /proc/sys/core/net/xfrm_redact_secret

From: Antony Antony <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2020 20:36:58 +0200

On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 02:22:52 +1000, Herbert Xu wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 05:47:30PM +0200, Antony Antony wrote:
> > when enabled, 1, redact XFRM SA secret in the netlink response to
> > xfrm_get_sa() or dump all sa.
> > 
> > e.g
> > echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/core/xfrm_redact_secret
> > ip xfrm state
> > src 172.16.1.200 dst 172.16.1.100
> > 	proto esp spi 0x00000002 reqid 2 mode tunnel
> > 	replay-window 0
> > 	aead rfc4106(gcm(aes)) 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 96
> > 
> > the aead secret is redacted.
> > 
> > /proc/sys/core/net/xfrm_redact_secret is a toggle.
> > Once enabled, either at compile or via proc, it can not be disabled.
> > Redacting secret is a FIPS 140-2 requirement.
> 
> Couldn't you use the existing fips_enabled sysctl?

that could be a step, however, not yet.

Libreswan in FIPS mode with xfrm_redact_secret enabled would work fine, however, enabling xfrm_redact_secret would break Strongswan in FIPS mode. We can add this option fips_enabled once Strongswan does not need SA secret, child_sa->update().

Also there was interest to able to use xfrm_redact_secret independent of FIPS.

I thik for now it best to be ouside fips_enabled.