linux-kernel - Re: Entropy Pool Contents

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Message-ID:  <ekfoev$k3v$1@sea.gmane.org>
Date:	Mon, 27 Nov 2006 23:21:40 +0100
From:	Gunter Ohrner <G.Ohrner@...t.rwth-aachen.de>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject:  Re: Entropy Pool Contents

Phillip Susi wrote:
>> I'm mainly wondering why writing stuff to /dev/*random does not change
>> the entropy from zero to at least any low non-zero value...
> I ran into this the other day myself and when I investigated the kernel
> code, I found that writes to /dev/random do accept the data into the
> entropy pool, but do NOT update the entropy estimate.  In order to do

Heck, you're right.

Thanks, that's just the answer I was looking for.

> that, you have to use a root only ioctl to add the data and update the
> estimate.  I am not sure why this is, or if there is a tool already
> written somewhere to use this ioctl, maybe someone else can comment?

rngd seems to do, from reading the documentation.

Greetings,

  Gunter

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