Tools like cpuid and cat /proc/cpuinfo can confirm that aes instructions are available right? But then I check /proc/crypto and do not see AES. I am running CentOS 6. Am I correct in my understanding that without the kernel module for aes loaded, I cannot take advantage of AES-NI instructions?Would a tool like modprobe load the appropriate kernel module? (unfortunately I do not have administrator rights)I am running a test program that uses AES-NI, and the performance an order of magnitude lower than expected.I am also curious, with AES-NI disabled, what instructions is the cpu running instead? Software emulation?EDIT: I see the following when i run modinfo$ /sbin/modinfo aesni_intelfilename:       /lib/modules/2.6.32-431.17.1.el6.x86_64/kernel/arch/x86/crypto/aesni-intel.koalias:          aeslicense:        GPLdescription:    Rijndael (AES) Cipher Algorithm, Intel AES-NI instructions optimizedsrcversion:     E6C037FA50922CF84440A82depends:        glue_helper,aes-x86_64,lrw,cryptd,aes_generic,ablk_helpervermagic:       2.6.32-431.17.1.el6.x86_64 SMP mod_unload modversions EDIT2: Is the above the right module for AMD processors as well?
aes-ni enabled but no kernel support?
centos
The file /proc/crypto lists algorithms that are available when the kernel itself performs cryptographic operations, for example for network protocols like IPsec and for disk encryption. This file does not convey information about what userland programs can do.The aesni_intel module contains code that implements AES using the Intel AES-NI accelerator. It is needed to use AES-NI when kernel code needs to run AES.As far as I know, using the AES-NI accelerator does not require any kernel code. A program only needs to issue the AESxxx CPU instructions. If the processor does not have AES-NI, the program will trigger an invalid instruction processor exception, which is translated as a SIGILL signal. It would be possible for the kernel to handle the exception by emulating the behavior of the missing instruction, but to my knowledge Linux does not do this for the AES-NI instructions.The AES-NI instruction is compatible on Intel and AMD processors.