linux-drivers/
drivers/crypto/aspeed

ASPEED AST2500/AST2600 BMC crypto and hash accelerators

On-chip hashing (HACE) and RSA/public-key (ACRY) accelerator blocks built into ASPEED's AST2500 and AST2600 baseboard management controllers, which are the small management processors found on the majority of modern server motherboards to handle remote console, sensors, and secure boot.

keep conf=0.90 last_sold=2025 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=crypto category=crypto
90%

recommendation

It should stay in the kernel because the hardware is still being sold and deployed: ASPEED's AST2500 and AST2600 baseboard management controllers ship in current server motherboards, the driver is the only way to reach their on-chip HACE hash and ACRY RSA engines, and upstream maintainers were still applying fixes as recently as October 2025.

repository signals

7 files
3,153 source lines
43 commits, 5y
+4,573 / −1,352 lines added / removed, 5y
15 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 43 total · active in 15/61 months
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sources

  1. spinics.net

    Upstream crypto maintainer Herbert Xu replied "Patch applied" to a 2025 fix for this driver, showing active maintenance rather than removal.

  2. spinics.net

    There was linux-crypto traffic in June 2025 about the aspeed/hash fallback work, indicating ongoing review and bug-fix attention.

  3. aspeedtech.com

    ASPEED's server-management product page still lists AST2600 and AST2500 BMC products, with AST2600 present in the current catalog alongside newer AST2700-family parts.

  4. aspeedtech.com

    AST2600 is presented by ASPEED as a current server-management/BMC SoC with native PCIe, secure boot, and remote-management features.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Local shell inspection (`rg`, `sed`) showed platform-driver code and Kconfig entries for Aspeed HACE hash/crypto and ACRY RSA on AST2500/AST2600. Local `git log` showed substantive fixes through 2025-10-20. `lei` was unavailable, so lore-style activity was checked via web search against mailing-list archives: no removal/deprecation discussion found, but active 2025 fix traffic and maintainer acceptance were found on spinics. Vendor deployment evidence came from ASPEED product pages opened via web tool; AST2600/AST2500 are still listed, so this is not legacy-only hardware. No natural replacement driver exists for the same on-SoC accelerator block.