#ifdef CONFIG_TCP_AO
        u8                              ao_keyid;
        u8                              ao_rcv_next;
-       u8                              maclen;
+       bool                            used_tcp_ao;
 #endif
 };
 
 
 static inline bool tcp_rsk_used_ao(const struct request_sock *req)
 {
-       /* The real length of MAC is saved in the request socket,
-        * signing anything with zero-length makes no sense, so here is
-        * a little hack..
-        */
 #ifndef CONFIG_TCP_AO
        return false;
 #else
-       return tcp_rsk(req)->maclen != 0;
+       return tcp_rsk(req)->used_tcp_ao;
 #endif
 }
 
 
        const struct tcp_ao_hdr *aoh;
        struct tcp_ao_key *key;
 
-       treq->maclen = 0;
+       treq->used_tcp_ao = false;
 
        if (tcp_parse_auth_options(th, NULL, &aoh) || !aoh)
                return;
 
        treq->ao_rcv_next = aoh->keyid;
        treq->ao_keyid = aoh->rnext_keyid;
-       treq->maclen = tcp_ao_maclen(key);
+       treq->used_tcp_ao = true;
 }
 
 static enum skb_drop_reason
 
        if (tcp_parse_auth_options(tcp_hdr(skb), NULL, &aoh))
                goto drop_and_release; /* Invalid TCP options */
        if (aoh) {
-               tcp_rsk(req)->maclen = aoh->length - sizeof(struct tcp_ao_hdr);
+               tcp_rsk(req)->used_tcp_ao = true;
                tcp_rsk(req)->ao_rcv_next = aoh->keyid;
                tcp_rsk(req)->ao_keyid = aoh->rnext_keyid;
+
        } else {
-               tcp_rsk(req)->maclen = 0;
+               tcp_rsk(req)->used_tcp_ao = false;
        }
 #endif
        tcp_rsk(req)->snt_isn = isn;
 
        if (tcp_rsk_used_ao(req)) {
 #ifdef CONFIG_TCP_AO
                struct tcp_ao_key *ao_key = NULL;
-               u8 maclen = tcp_rsk(req)->maclen;
                u8 keyid = tcp_rsk(req)->ao_keyid;
 
                ao_key = tcp_sk(sk)->af_specific->ao_lookup(sk, req_to_sk(req),
                 * for another peer-matching key, but the peer has requested
                 * ao_keyid (RFC5925 RNextKeyID), so let's keep it simple here.
                 */
-               if (unlikely(!ao_key || tcp_ao_maclen(ao_key) != maclen)) {
-                       u8 key_maclen = ao_key ? tcp_ao_maclen(ao_key) : 0;
-
+               if (unlikely(!ao_key)) {
                        rcu_read_unlock();
                        kfree_skb(skb);
-                       net_warn_ratelimited("TCP-AO: the keyid %u with maclen %u|%u from SYN packet is not present - not sending SYNACK\n",
-                                            keyid, maclen, key_maclen);
+                       net_warn_ratelimited("TCP-AO: the keyid %u from SYN packet is not present - not sending SYNACK\n",
+                                            keyid);
                        return NULL;
                }
                key.ao_key = ao_key;