Worked on the torvalds/linux repository to enhance the robustness of cryptographic authentication in the Linux kernel. Focused on kernel development and cryptography using C, this work introduced strict validation of the Additional Authenticated Data (AAD) length for ESN cryptographic paths. By enforcing a minimum AAD length of eight bytes in the crypto_authenc_esn_encrypt and crypto_authenc_esn_decrypt functions, the update aligned kernel behavior with ESP/ESN specifications. This change prevented potential kernel panics and NULL pointer dereferences caused by invalid AAD inputs, thereby improving the reliability and security of the kernel’s cryptographic stack through careful, standards-driven engineering.