Intel Key Protection Technology (KPT) support is being added to the Linux 7.2 kernel for next-generation QAT GEN6 hardware. KPT protects encryption keys by ensuring they are never exposed in plain text in host memory, covering keys in use, in flight, and at rest. A patch has been queued in the crypto subsystem's development tree (cryptodev), introducing new sysfs interfaces and driver infrastructure for QAT KPT. This marks the first time KPT appears in the upstream Linux QAT driver, despite Intel promoting the technology since 2016–2017. The open-source QATlib also currently lists KPT as unsupported, suggesting the upstream codebase is finally catching up.
235 Impressions