AVX2-Optimized SM4 Cipher Implementation Queued Ahead Of Linux 5.15

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AVX2-Optimized SM4 Cipher Implementation Queued Ahead Of Linux 5.15

The Linux kernel has already sported SM4 cipher algorithm implementation optimized for AES-NI and AVX while now an Alibaba engineer has contributed an AVX2 optimized variant for even greater performance...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AES-NI-AVX2-SM4-Crypto-Optimize

[yump]

Does anyone know why this algorithm would be preferred over AES or ChaCha20? Does it have any publicly disclosed advantages, or is it pure political considerations? (I.e., Chinese spooks aren't confident American spooks can't break other algos, or the Chinese spooks have a backdoor for SM4 that they don't have for other algos.)

[boxie]

Does anyone know why this algorithm would be preferred over AES or ChaCha20? Does it have any publicly disclosed advantages, or is it pure political considerations? (I.e., Chinese spooks aren't confident American spooks can't break other algos, or the Chinese spooks have a backdoor for SM4 that they don't have for other algos.)

The great thing about modern crypto is that the we do not have to keep secret the process of making things secret.

I would say this is purely political - very NIH