kcapi_aead_encrypt - Man Page

synchronously encrypt AEAD data (one shot)

Synopsis

ssize_t kcapi_aead_encrypt(struct kcapi_handle * handle, const uint8_t * in, size_t inlen, const uint8_t * iv, uint8_t * out, size_t outlen, int access);

Arguments

handle

[in] cipher handle

in

[in] plaintext data buffer

inlen

[in] length of plaintext buffer

iv

[in] IV to be used for cipher operation

out

[out] data buffer holding cipher text and authentication tag

outlen

[in] length of out buffer

access

[in] kernel access type (KCAPI_ACCESS_HEURISTIC - use internal heuristic for fastest kernel access; KCAPI_ACCESS_VMSPLICE - use vmsplice access; KCAPI_ACCESS_SENDMSG - sendmsg access)

Description

The AEAD cipher operation requires the furnishing of the associated authentication data​. In case such data is not required, it can be set to NULL and length value must be set to zero​.

It is perfectly legal to use the same buffer as the plaintext and ciphertext pointers​. That would mean that after the encryption operation, the plaintext is overwritten with the ciphertext​.

The memory should be aligned at the page boundary using posix_memalign(sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE)), If it is not aligned at the page boundary, the vmsplice call may not send all data to the kernel​.

The IV buffer must be exactly kcapi_cipher_ivsize bytes in size​.

After invoking this function the caller should use kcapi_aead_getdata_output to obtain the resulting ciphertext and authentication tag references​.

Important Note

The kernel will only process sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE) * ALG_MAX_PAGES at one time​. Longer input data cannot be handled by the kernel​.

return number of bytes encrypted upon success; a negative errno-style error code if an error occurred

Author

Stephan Mueller <​smueller@chronox.de​>

Author.

Info

August 2026 libkcapi Manual 1.5.1 Programming Interface