Early boot, activation, upgrades

[C. Scott Ananian]

On 7/10/07, Mitch Bradley <wmb at laptop.org> wrote:
> In particular, the current code does:
> Hashes file data with whirlpool
> Hashes file data with SHA-512
> Verifies RSA signature against whirlpool hash
> Verifies RSA signature against SHA-512 hash
> Verifies ECC signature against whirlpool hash
> Verifies ECC signature against SHA-512 hash

Well, the four signature validation checks are independent of the size
of the file data.  I think the original concern was whether the
activation initramfs was going to bloat the kernel enough to
significantly slow down the hashing steps.  If that is the case, then
dropping either whirlpool or SHA-512 would help -- or we could debloat
the initramfs, split the initramfs signature from the kernel signature
and only check the initramfs if it is used, speed up the whirlpool
implementation, or speed up the SHA-512 implementation.  I don't yet
have an XO to benchmark on -- does anyone know the rough throughput
(MB/s) of the current whirlpool and SHA-512 implementations?
 --scott

-- 
                         ( http://cscott.net/ )