Hi Reid,
Thanks for the pointer to the benchmarking code argument issue. I'll post a fix for shortly.
The benchmarking isn't testing the data inputs/outputs, so the use of the buffer is not critical.
If you are looking for AES CBC test cases see wolfcrypt/test/test.c -> `aes_cbc_test`.
Are you seeing the AES benchmarks you expected? Depending on your platform you might consider using `--enable-intelasm` or `--enable-armasm` to speed up symmetric AES/SHA.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Thanks,
David Garske, wolfSSL