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authorJason A. Donenfeld <Jason@zx2c4.com>2017-01-08 13:54:01 +0100
committerDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2017-01-09 13:58:57 -0500
commit1ae2324f732c9c4e2fa4ebd885fa1001b70d52e1 (patch)
tree9d63a575a90f854e8a338cf46e35ecc96d7f6794 /Documentation/siphash.txt
parent2c956a60778cbb6a27e0c7a8a52a91378c90e1d1 (diff)
siphash: implement HalfSipHash1-3 for hash tables
HalfSipHash, or hsiphash, is a shortened version of SipHash, which generates 32-bit outputs using a weaker 64-bit key. It has *much* lower security margins, and shouldn't be used for anything too sensitive, but it could be used as a hashtable key function replacement, if the output is never exposed, and if the security requirement is not too high. The goal is to make this something that performance-critical jhash users would be willing to use. On 64-bit machines, HalfSipHash1-3 is slower than SipHash1-3, so we alias SipHash1-3 to HalfSipHash1-3 on those systems. 64-bit x86_64: [ 0.509409] test_siphash: SipHash2-4 cycles: 4049181 [ 0.510650] test_siphash: SipHash1-3 cycles: 2512884 [ 0.512205] test_siphash: HalfSipHash1-3 cycles: 3429920 [ 0.512904] test_siphash: JenkinsHash cycles: 978267 So, we map hsiphash() -> SipHash1-3 32-bit x86: [ 0.509868] test_siphash: SipHash2-4 cycles: 14812892 [ 0.513601] test_siphash: SipHash1-3 cycles: 9510710 [ 0.515263] test_siphash: HalfSipHash1-3 cycles: 3856157 [ 0.515952] test_siphash: JenkinsHash cycles: 1148567 So, we map hsiphash() -> HalfSipHash1-3 hsiphash() is roughly 3 times slower than jhash(), but comes with a considerable security improvement. Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@zx2c4.com> Reviewed-by: Jean-Philippe Aumasson <jeanphilippe.aumasson@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/siphash.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/siphash.txt75
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diff --git a/Documentation/siphash.txt b/Documentation/siphash.txt
index e8e6ddbbaab4..908d348ff777 100644
--- a/Documentation/siphash.txt
+++ b/Documentation/siphash.txt
@@ -98,3 +98,78 @@ u64 h = siphash(&combined, offsetofend(typeof(combined), dport), &secret);
Read the SipHash paper if you're interested in learning more:
https://131002.net/siphash/siphash.pdf
+
+
+~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~
+
+HalfSipHash - SipHash's insecure younger cousin
+-----------------------------------------------
+Written by Jason A. Donenfeld <jason@zx2c4.com>
+
+On the off-chance that SipHash is not fast enough for your needs, you might be
+able to justify using HalfSipHash, a terrifying but potentially useful
+possibility. HalfSipHash cuts SipHash's rounds down from "2-4" to "1-3" and,
+even scarier, uses an easily brute-forcable 64-bit key (with a 32-bit output)
+instead of SipHash's 128-bit key. However, this may appeal to some
+high-performance `jhash` users.
+
+Danger!
+
+Do not ever use HalfSipHash except for as a hashtable key function, and only
+then when you can be absolutely certain that the outputs will never be
+transmitted out of the kernel. This is only remotely useful over `jhash` as a
+means of mitigating hashtable flooding denial of service attacks.
+
+1. Generating a key
+
+Keys should always be generated from a cryptographically secure source of
+random numbers, either using get_random_bytes or get_random_once:
+
+hsiphash_key_t key;
+get_random_bytes(&key, sizeof(key));
+
+If you're not deriving your key from here, you're doing it wrong.
+
+2. Using the functions
+
+There are two variants of the function, one that takes a list of integers, and
+one that takes a buffer:
+
+u32 hsiphash(const void *data, size_t len, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
+
+And:
+
+u32 hsiphash_1u32(u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
+u32 hsiphash_2u32(u32, u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
+u32 hsiphash_3u32(u32, u32, u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
+u32 hsiphash_4u32(u32, u32, u32, u32, const hsiphash_key_t *key);
+
+If you pass the generic hsiphash function something of a constant length, it
+will constant fold at compile-time and automatically choose one of the
+optimized functions.
+
+3. Hashtable key function usage:
+
+struct some_hashtable {
+ DECLARE_HASHTABLE(hashtable, 8);
+ hsiphash_key_t key;
+};
+
+void init_hashtable(struct some_hashtable *table)
+{
+ get_random_bytes(&table->key, sizeof(table->key));
+}
+
+static inline hlist_head *some_hashtable_bucket(struct some_hashtable *table, struct interesting_input *input)
+{
+ return &table->hashtable[hsiphash(input, sizeof(*input), &table->key) & (HASH_SIZE(table->hashtable) - 1)];
+}
+
+You may then iterate like usual over the returned hash bucket.
+
+4. Performance
+
+HalfSipHash is roughly 3 times slower than JenkinsHash. For many replacements,
+this will not be a problem, as the hashtable lookup isn't the bottleneck. And
+in general, this is probably a good sacrifice to make for the security and DoS
+resistance of HalfSipHash.