Hi, I'm trying to use the "arc4" algorithm to to encrypt a arbitrary data stream from a module. But i'm a little clueless about how should i approach it.the implementation is in <crypto/arc4.c> $find . -type f -name '*.[ch]' -exec grep 'EXPORT_SYMBOL' {} \; | grep 'rc4' returned nothing. So i guess there is no external interface to static void arc4_crypt(struct crypto_tfm *tfm, u8 *out, const u8 *in). The register function is defined as static int __init arc4_init(void) { return crypto_register_alg(&arc4_alg); } And there is a static instance of struct crypto_alg. By these hints, I've come to conclusion that, I need a higher level interface to access this algorithm. Only function which seems relevant in my case is : EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(crypto_alloc_tfm); from <crypto/api.c> : void *crypto_alloc_tfm(const char *alg_name, const struct crypto_type *frontend, u32 type, u32 mask) it returns void * which is my first concern. And also from <crypt/api.c> crypto_alloc_tfm() will first attempt to locate an already loaded algorithm. If that fails and the kernel supports dynamically loadable modules, it will then attempt to load a module of the same name or alias. If that fails it will send a query to any loaded crypto manager to construct an algorithm on the fly. A refcount is grabbed on the algorithm which is then associated with the new transform. The returned transform is of a non-determinate type. Most people should use one of the more specific allocation functions such as crypto_alloc_blkcipher. But no specific crypto_alloc_* i could find which will provide arc4 algorithm. Second concern: struct crypto_type in <include/crypto/algapi.h> is looking horrendous to instantiate by hand. And lastly if get a tfm instance, how i use it to do actual encryption?