Re: entropy gathering (was Re: Why does reading from /dev/urandomdeplete entropy so much?)

From: Jeff Garzik
Date: Sat Dec 08 2007 - 15:05:48 EST


Matt Mackall wrote:
On Sat, Dec 08, 2007 at 02:36:33PM -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
As an aside...

Speaking as the maintainer rng-tools, which is the home of the hardware RNG entropy gathering daemon...

I wish somebody (not me) would take rngd and several other projects, and combine them into a single actively maintained "entropy gathering" package.

I think we should re-evaluate having an internal path from the hwrngs
to /dev/[u]random, which will reduce the need for userspace config
that can go wrong.

That's a bit of a tangent on a tangent. :) Most people don't have a hardware RNG.

But as long as there are adequate safeguards against common hardware failures (read: FIPS testing inside the kernel), go for it.

Jeff



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