linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 0/2] Add support for Qualcomm's PRNG

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Date:	Thu, 10 Oct 2013 16:47:42 +0300
From:	Stanimir Varbanov <svarbanov@...sol.com>
To:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
CC:	Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>,
	Rob Herring <rob.herring@...xeda.com>,
	Pawel Moll <pawel.moll@....com>,
	Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>,
	Stephen Warren <swarren@...dotorg.org>,
	Ian Campbell <ijc+devicetree@...lion.org.uk>,
	Matt Mackall <mpm@...enic.com>,
	Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.hengli.com.au>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Rob Landley <rob@...dley.net>,
	devicetree@...r.kernel.org, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
	linux-arm-msm@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/2] Add support for Qualcomm's PRNG

Hi Ted, Peter,

On 10/09/2013 06:07 PM, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 10/09/2013 07:46 AM, Stanimir Varbanov wrote:
>>
>> No, there is no public documentation for the block. Here is the driver
>> documentation which I used as a base [1].
>>
>> My guess was that - if it is PRNG (got from hardware description link
>> above) than according to wiki [2] it is also known as a deterministic
>> random bit generator (DRBG). The recommendation for RNG using DRBG is
>> NIST 800-90.
>>
>> Of course I could be wrong, so I can add a comment that this is just a
>> guess and we shouldn't over-reliance on this.
>>
> 
> There needs to be an architecturally guaranteed lower bound on the
> entropic content for this to be at all useful.  However, the hwrandom
> interface is currently expecting fully entropic output (which is almost
> certainly bogus... consider the PowerPC random number generator[1]) and
> so using it for a PRNG output is directly wrong.  This is part of why
> RDRAND support is implemented directly in rngd so that we can do the
> required cryptographic data reduction to produce fully entropic output.

I ran the rngtest with following command line:

# cat /dev/hw_random | rngtest -c 100000

Copyright (c) 2004 by Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is
NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.

rngtest: starting FIPS tests...
rngtest: bits received from input: 2000000032
rngtest: FIPS 140-2 successes: 99925
rngtest: FIPS 140-2 failures: 75
rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Monobit: 10
rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Poker: 9
rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Runs: 20
rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Long run: 38
rngtest: FIPS 140-2(2001-10-10) Continuous run: 0
rngtest: input channel speed: (min=1.267; avg=53.222; max=2384.186)Mibits/s
rngtest: FIPS tests speed: (min=3.016; avg=48.847; max=49.931)Mibits/s
rngtest: Program run time: 75191914 microseconds

Could you guys comment those results?

regards,
Stan

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