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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-09-05 11:59:05 -0700
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Merge tag 'driver-core-7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/driver-core/driver-coregrafted
Pull driver core fixes from Danilo Krummrich: - Fix kernfs listxattr() not returning security xattr names (e.g. SELinux labels) when the kernfs node has no allocated kernfs_iattrs - Fix silent truncation of IRQ vector indices in the Rust PCI abstractions - Don't select OF from DRIVER_PE_KUNIT_TEST; skip the test when OF is disabled instead of silently enabling extra kernel functionality - Russ Weight is retiring from kernel development; update the Firmware Loader sysfs contact to the driver-core mailing list, add a CREDITS entry for Firmware Upload, and update MAINTAINERS accordingly * tag 'driver-core-7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/driver-core/driver-core: MAINTAINERS: Remove Russ Weight from Firmware Loader CREDITS: Add CREDITS entry for Firmware Upload firmware_loader: Change contact for sysfs nodes rust: pci: reject IRQ vector indices that do not fit in u32 kernfs: preserve security xattrs without allocating iattrs drivers: base: test: DRIVER_PE_KUNIT_TEST should not select OF
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+=========
+dm-verity
+=========
+
+Device-Mapper's "verity" target provides transparent integrity checking of
+block devices using a cryptographic digest provided by the kernel crypto API.
+This target is read-only.
+
+Construction Parameters
+=======================
+
+::
+
+ <version> <dev> <hash_dev>
+ <data_block_size> <hash_block_size>
+ <num_data_blocks> <hash_start_block>
+ <algorithm> <digest> <salt>
+ [<#opt_params> <opt_params>]
+
+<version>
+ This is the type of the on-disk hash format.
+
+ 0 is the original format used in the Chromium OS.
+ The salt is appended when hashing, digests are stored continuously and
+ the rest of the block is padded with zeroes.
+
+ 1 is the current format that should be used for new devices.
+ The salt is prepended when hashing and each digest is
+ padded with zeroes to the power of two.
+
+<dev>
+ This is the device containing data, the integrity of which needs to be
+ checked. It may be specified as a path, like /dev/sdaX, or a device number,
+ <major>:<minor>.
+
+<hash_dev>
+ This is the device that supplies the hash tree data. It may be
+ specified similarly to the device path and may be the same device. If the
+ same device is used, the hash_start should be outside the configured
+ dm-verity device.
+
+<data_block_size>
+ The block size on a data device in bytes.
+ Each block corresponds to one digest on the hash device.
+
+<hash_block_size>
+ The size of a hash block in bytes.
+
+<num_data_blocks>
+ The number of data blocks on the data device. Additional blocks are
+ inaccessible. You can place hashes to the same partition as data, in this
+ case hashes are placed after <num_data_blocks>.
+
+<hash_start_block>
+ This is the offset, in <hash_block_size>-blocks, from the start of hash_dev
+ to the root block of the hash tree.
+
+<algorithm>
+ The cryptographic hash algorithm used for this device. This should
+ be the name of the algorithm, like "sha1".
+
+<digest>
+ The hexadecimal encoding of the cryptographic hash of the root hash block
+ and the salt. This hash should be trusted as there is no other authenticity
+ beyond this point.
+
+<salt>
+ The hexadecimal encoding of the salt value.
+
+<#opt_params>
+ Number of optional parameters. If there are no optional parameters,
+ the optional parameters section can be skipped or #opt_params can be zero.
+ Otherwise #opt_params is the number of following arguments.
+
+ Example of optional parameters section:
+ 1 ignore_corruption
+
+ignore_corruption
+ Log corrupted blocks, but allow read operations to proceed normally.
+
+restart_on_corruption
+ Restart the system when a corrupted block is discovered. This option is
+ not compatible with ignore_corruption and requires user space support to
+ avoid restart loops.
+
+panic_on_corruption
+ Panic the device when a corrupted block is discovered. This option is
+ not compatible with ignore_corruption and restart_on_corruption.
+
+restart_on_error
+ Restart the system when an I/O error is detected.
+ This option can be combined with the restart_on_corruption option.
+
+panic_on_error
+ Panic the device when an I/O error is detected. This option is
+ not compatible with the restart_on_error option but can be combined
+ with the panic_on_corruption option.
+
+ignore_zero_blocks
+ Do not verify blocks that are expected to contain zeroes and always return
+ zeroes instead. This may be useful if the partition contains unused blocks
+ that are not guaranteed to contain zeroes.
+
+use_fec_from_device <fec_dev>
+ Use forward error correction (FEC) parity data from the specified device to
+ try to automatically recover from corruption and I/O errors.
+
+ If this option is given, then <fec_roots> and <fec_blocks> must also be
+ given. <hash_block_size> must also be equal to <data_block_size>.
+
+ <fec_dev> can be the same as <dev>, in which case <fec_start> must be
+ outside the data area. It can also be the same as <hash_dev>, in which case
+ <fec_start> must be outside the hash and optional additional metadata areas.
+
+ If the data <dev> is encrypted, the <fec_dev> should be too.
+
+ For more information, see `Forward error correction`_.
+
+fec_roots <num>
+ The number of parity bytes in each 255-byte Reed-Solomon codeword. The
+ Reed-Solomon code used will be an RS(255, k) code where k = 255 - fec_roots.
+
+ The supported values are 2 through 24 inclusive. Higher values provide
+ stronger error correction. However, the minimum value of 2 already provides
+ strong error correction due to the use of interleaving, so 2 is the
+ recommended value for most users. fec_roots=2 corresponds to an
+ RS(255, 253) code, which has a space overhead of about 0.8%.
+
+fec_blocks <num>
+ The total number of <data_block_size> blocks that are error-checked using
+ FEC. This must be at least the sum of <num_data_blocks> and the number of
+ blocks needed by the hash tree. It can include additional metadata blocks,
+ which are assumed to be accessible on <hash_dev> following the hash blocks.
+
+ Note that this is *not* the number of parity blocks. The number of parity
+ blocks is inferred from <fec_blocks>, <fec_roots>, and <data_block_size>.
+
+fec_start <offset>
+ This is the offset, in <data_block_size> blocks, from the start of <fec_dev>
+ to the beginning of the parity data.
+
+check_at_most_once
+ Verify data blocks only the first time they are read from the data device,
+ rather than every time. This reduces the overhead of dm-verity so that it
+ can be used on systems that are memory and/or CPU constrained. However, it
+ provides a reduced level of security because only offline tampering of the
+ data device's content will be detected, not online tampering.
+
+ Hash blocks are still verified each time they are read from the hash device,
+ since verification of hash blocks is less performance critical than data
+ blocks, and a hash block will not be verified any more after all the data
+ blocks it covers have been verified anyway.
+
+root_hash_sig_key_desc <key_description>
+ This is the description of the USER_KEY that the kernel will lookup to get
+ the pkcs7 signature of the roothash. The pkcs7 signature is used to validate
+ the root hash during the creation of the device mapper block device.
+ Verification of roothash depends on the config DM_VERITY_VERIFY_ROOTHASH_SIG
+ being set in the kernel. The signatures are checked against the builtin
+ trusted keyring by default, or the secondary trusted keyring if
+ DM_VERITY_VERIFY_ROOTHASH_SIG_SECONDARY_KEYRING is set. The secondary
+ trusted keyring includes by default the builtin trusted keyring, and it can
+ also gain new certificates at run time if they are signed by a certificate
+ already in the secondary trusted keyring.
+
+try_verify_in_tasklet
+ If verity hashes are in cache and the IO size does not exceed the limit,
+ verify data blocks in bottom half instead of workqueue. This option can
+ reduce IO latency. The size limits can be configured via
+ /sys/module/dm_verity/parameters/use_bh_bytes. The four parameters
+ correspond to limits for IOPRIO_CLASS_NONE, IOPRIO_CLASS_RT,
+ IOPRIO_CLASS_BE and IOPRIO_CLASS_IDLE in turn.
+ For example:
+ <none>,<rt>,<be>,<idle>
+ 4096,4096,4096,4096
+
+Theory of operation
+===================
+
+dm-verity is meant to be set up as part of a verified boot path. This
+may be anything ranging from a boot using tboot or trustedgrub to just
+booting from a known-good device (like a USB drive or CD).
+
+When a dm-verity device is configured, it is expected that the caller
+has been authenticated in some way (cryptographic signatures, etc).
+After instantiation, all hashes will be verified on-demand during
+disk access. If they cannot be verified up to the root node of the
+tree, the root hash, then the I/O will fail. This should detect
+tampering with any data on the device and the hash data.
+
+Cryptographic hashes are used to assert the integrity of the device on a
+per-block basis. This allows for a lightweight hash computation on first read
+into the page cache. Block hashes are stored linearly, aligned to the nearest
+block size.
+
+Hash Tree
+---------
+
+Each node in the tree is a cryptographic hash. If it is a leaf node, the hash
+of some data block on disk is calculated. If it is an intermediary node,
+the hash of a number of child nodes is calculated.
+
+Each entry in the tree is a collection of neighboring nodes that fit in one
+block. The number is determined based on block_size and the size of the
+selected cryptographic digest algorithm. The hashes are linearly-ordered in
+this entry and any unaligned trailing space is ignored but included when
+calculating the parent node.
+
+The tree looks something like:
+
+ alg = sha256, num_blocks = 32768, block_size = 4096
+
+::
+
+ [ root ]
+ / . . . \
+ [entry_0] [entry_1]
+ / . . . \ . . . \
+ [entry_0_0] . . . [entry_0_127] . . . . [entry_1_127]
+ / ... \ / . . . \ / \
+ blk_0 ... blk_127 blk_16256 blk_16383 blk_32640 . . . blk_32767
+
+Forward error correction
+------------------------
+
+dm-verity's optional forward error correction (FEC) support adds strong error
+correction capabilities to dm-verity. It allows systems that would be rendered
+inoperable by errors to continue operating, albeit with reduced performance.
+
+FEC uses Reed-Solomon (RS) codes that are interleaved across the entire
+device(s), allowing long bursts of corrupt or unreadable blocks to be recovered.
+
+dm-verity validates any FEC-corrected block against the wanted hash before using
+it. Therefore, FEC doesn't affect the security properties of dm-verity.
+
+The integration of FEC with dm-verity provides significant benefits over a
+separate error correction layer:
+
+- dm-verity invokes FEC only when a block's hash doesn't match the wanted hash
+ or the block cannot be read at all. As a result, FEC doesn't add overhead to
+ the common case where no error occurs.
+
+- dm-verity hashes are also used to identify erasure locations for RS decoding.
+ This allows correcting twice as many errors.
+
+FEC uses an RS(255, k) code where k = 255 - fec_roots. fec_roots is usually 2.
+This means that each k (usually 253) message bytes have fec_roots (usually 2)
+bytes of parity data added to get a 255-byte codeword. (Many external sources
+call RS codewords "blocks". Since dm-verity already uses the term "block" to
+mean something else, we'll use the clearer term "RS codeword".)
+
+FEC checks fec_blocks blocks of message data in total, consisting of:
+
+1. The data blocks from the data device
+2. The hash blocks from the hash device
+3. Optional additional metadata that follows the hash blocks on the hash device
+
+dm-verity assumes that the FEC parity data was computed as if the following
+procedure were followed:
+
+1. Concatenate the message data from the above sources.
+2. Zero-pad to the next multiple of k blocks. Let msg be the resulting byte
+ array, and msglen its length in bytes.
+3. For 0 <= i < msglen / k (for each RS codeword):
+ a. Select msg[i + j * msglen / k] for 0 <= j < k.
+ Consider these to be the 'k' message bytes of an RS codeword.
+ b. Compute the corresponding 'fec_roots' parity bytes of the RS codeword,
+ and concatenate them to the FEC parity data.
+
+Step 3a interleaves the RS codewords across the entire device using an
+interleaving degree of data_block_size * ceil(fec_blocks / k). This is the
+maximal interleaving, such that the message data consists of a region containing
+byte 0 of all the RS codewords, then a region containing byte 1 of all the RS
+codewords, and so on up to the region for byte 'k - 1'. Note that the number of
+codewords is set to a multiple of data_block_size; thus, the regions are
+block-aligned, and there is an implicit zero padding of up to 'k - 1' blocks.
+
+This interleaving allows long bursts of errors to be corrected. It provides
+much stronger error correction than storage devices typically provide, while
+keeping the space overhead low.
+
+The cost is slow decoding: correcting a single block usually requires reading
+254 extra blocks spread evenly across the device(s). However, that is
+acceptable because dm-verity uses FEC only when there is actually an error.
+
+The list below contains additional details about the RS codes used by
+dm-verity's FEC. Userspace programs that generate the parity data need to use
+these parameters for the parity data to match exactly:
+
+- Field used is GF(256)
+- Bytes are mapped to/from GF(256) elements in the natural way, where bits 0
+ through 7 (low-order to high-order) map to the coefficients of x^0 through x^7
+- Field generator polynomial is x^8 + x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + 1
+- The codes used are systematic, BCH-view codes
+- Primitive element alpha is 'x'
+- First consecutive root of code generator polynomial is 'x^0'
+
+On-disk format
+==============
+
+The verity kernel code does not read the verity metadata on-disk header.
+It only reads the hash blocks which directly follow the header.
+It is expected that a user-space tool will verify the integrity of the
+verity header.
+
+Alternatively, the header can be omitted and the dmsetup parameters can
+be passed via the kernel command-line in a rooted chain of trust where
+the command-line is verified.
+
+Directly following the header (and with sector number padded to the next hash
+block boundary) are the hash blocks which are stored a depth at a time
+(starting from the root), sorted in order of increasing index.
+
+The full specification of kernel parameters and on-disk metadata format
+is available at the cryptsetup project's wiki page
+
+ https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/wikis/DMVerity
+
+Status
+======
+1. V (for Valid) is returned if every check performed so far was valid.
+ If any check failed, C (for Corruption) is returned.
+2. Number of corrected blocks by Forward Error Correction.
+ '-' if Forward Error Correction is not enabled.
+
+Example
+=======
+Set up a device::
+
+ # dmsetup create vroot --readonly --table \
+ "0 2097152 verity 1 /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 4096 4096 262144 1 sha256 "\
+ "4392712ba01368efdf14b05c76f9e4df0d53664630b5d48632ed17a137f39076 "\
+ "1234000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
+
+A command line tool veritysetup is available to compute or verify
+the hash tree or activate the kernel device. This is available from
+the cryptsetup upstream repository https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/
+(as a libcryptsetup extension).
+
+Create hash on the device::
+
+ # veritysetup format /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2
+ ...
+ Root hash: 4392712ba01368efdf14b05c76f9e4df0d53664630b5d48632ed17a137f39076
+
+Activate the device::
+
+ # veritysetup create vroot /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 \
+ 4392712ba01368efdf14b05c76f9e4df0d53664630b5d48632ed17a137f39076