FSCRYPT Inline Encryption Revised For Better Encryption Performance On Modern SoCs

It remains to be seen if it will make it for the upcoming Linux 5.7 kernel merge window, but the FSCRYPT inline encryption functionality has now made it up to its ninth revision for offering better file-system encryption performance on modern mobile SoCs.

FSCRYPT inline encryption came out at the end of last summer and compared to the existing FSCRYPT file-system encryption/decryption where the work is left to the file-system and Linux's crypto API, this inline encryption/description shifts the work off to the block layer as part of the bio.

In turn this inline encryption makes it possible to exploit inline encryption hardware present in most modern Arm SoCs, including those powering many current Android devices with this FSCRYPT support being worked on by Google engineers.

The tentative inline encryption patches wire up the key block changes for this functionality plus wire it through to the UFS, F2FS, and EXT4 file-systems.

The inline encryption functionality isn't currently enabled by default for any conditions but is done so when inlinecrypt is passed as a mount option for a supported file-system. This inlinecrypt flag is still safe to use for systems without inline encryption hardware as the proper fall-backs are in place.

These newest patches were sent out yesterday and are currently staged via FSCRYPT's inline-encryption branch while waiting to see if it will be sent in as part of material for the Linux 5.7 merge window.