virtio-crypto paravirtualized cryptography device
A guest-side driver for the virtio-crypto virtual device, a standardized paravirtualized interface that lets a Linux virtual machine offload cryptographic operations (cipher, hash, AEAD, asymmetric) to its hypervisor. It is used by QEMU/KVM and other virtio-aware hypervisors to expose host crypto acceleration to guests rather than to drive any physical chip.
recommendation
It should stay in the kernel because virtio-crypto is part of the current OASIS virtio 1.2 specification, is documented as a recommended device model by QEMU, and the driver is still actively maintained — stable-tree fixes were being backported as recently as 2026. Although no physical hardware is sold for it, it remains in meaningful use across virtualization deployments.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
Recent 2026 stable-tree traffic references a virtio-crypto fix for this driver, indicating active upstream maintenance rather than retirement.
- docs.oasis-open.org
The virtio 1.2 specification defines a crypto device type (5.9), showing virtio-crypto is a standardized current virtual device interface, not a legacy one-off.
- qemu.org
QEMU documents virtio devices as the recommended paravirtualized device models for virtual machines, supporting continued new deployments in virtualization environments.
- docs.kernel.org
Kernel documentation describes virtio as the standard Linux interface for devices presented by hypervisors to guests, aligning this driver with ongoing VM use rather than obsolete physical hardware.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Local source read via shell showed Kconfig/objects for a real virtio crypto driver, including Bytedance-era code and current module wiring. `lore_activity` on `drivers/crypto/virtio/virtio_crypto_core.c` produced 2026 linux-crypto/stable backport evidence, which is strong keep-signal. Web search returned the OASIS virtio spec, QEMU virtio docs, and kernel virtio docs; together they show this is a standardized, still-current virtual device used in VM deployments. It is not tied to physical hardware sales, so `hardware_still_sold_new_in_2025` is false and `last_widely_available_year` is null, but current deployment remains meaningful in virtualization niches.