On Tue, 29 Nov 2016, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
Could we, should we use the kernel instead of NSS?
There are pros and cons for this: Pros: + New ciphers seem to appear in the kernel before they appear in NSS + Less dependency on userland crypto library + Using the same implementation for IKE and ESP/AH seems good. + FIPS code reduction Conns: - We still need a lot of X.509 code for verifying certificates, so still need a crypto library - We still need FIPS file verification which depends on userland crypto (could be changed to use AF_ALG as well but test labs recommend against it) - Adds kernel version dependency on libreswan (bad for FIPS) - NSS handles key/cert storage via PKCS#11 interface. We do not want to go back to manually having to create/store/read/write files on disk. (apparently openssl can also read an nss db though) - We still need a library for OCSP/CRL handling - Kernel would contain (long term) IKE keys - exploits easier Unknowns: ? Does this make EAP easier (another userland + crypto dependency) ? How well does kernel AF_ALG scale for thousands of IKE sessions ? Paul _______________________________________________ Swan-dev mailing list [email protected] https://lists.libreswan.org/mailman/listinfo/swan-dev
