linux-kernel - Re: Entropy Pool Contents

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Message-ID: <ekfehh$kbu$1@taverner.cs.berkeley.edu>
Date:	Mon, 27 Nov 2006 19:33:05 +0000 (UTC)
From:	daw@...berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Entropy Pool Contents

Phillip Susi  wrote:
>Why are non root users allowed write access in the first place?  Can't 
>the pollute the entropy pool and thus actually REDUCE the amount of good 
>entropy?

Nope, I don't think so.  If they could, that would be a security hole,
but /dev/{,u}random was designed to try to make this impossible, assuming
the cryptographic algorithms are secure.

After all, some of the entropy sources come from untrusted sources and
could be manipulated by an external adversary who doesn't have any
account on your machine (root or non-root), so the scheme has to be
secure against introduction of maliciously chosen samples in any event.
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