AWS Nitro Secure Module Driver Headlines char/misc Changes For Linux 6.8

Along with the USB/Thunderbolt changes for Linux 6.8, Greg Kroah-Hartman also submitted the char/misc changes during the back-half of the week for this new kernel version.

The "char/misc" area of the kernel continues to be a random "catch-all" area of the kernel for drivers not fitting nicely within other subsystems. Headlining the char/misc changes for Linux 6.8 is upstreaming the AWS Nitro Secure Module driver.

As explained previously, when running Linux within a Nitro Enclaves on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the hypervisor exposes a VirtIO device called the Nitro Secure Module (NSM). The AWS Nitro Secure Module can provide attestation reports, modify the PCR state, and provide entropy to the cloud instance (VM). With the patch set to be mainlined for Linux 6.8, the Nitro Secure Module is exposed to the guest via the /dev/nsm device node for interacting with this security module. The driver also provides a hardware random number generator (HWRNG) back-end.

The char/misc pull also has various updates to the new AMD CDX subsystem, Android Binder updates, the ee1004 EEPROM driver now has temperature sensor support, the ADC IIO driver adds support for the MAX34408/9, a new driver for TI HDC302x humidity sensors, async DMA support for the MHI driver, and various other driver changes.

The full list of char/misc changes for Linux 6.8 can be found via this pull request that has already been merged to Linux Git.