linux-kernel - Re: entropy gathering (was Re: Why does reading from /dev/urandom deplete entropy so much?)

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Message-ID: <20071208234721.GR17037@thunk.org>
Date:	Sat, 8 Dec 2007 18:47:21 -0500
From:	Theodore Tso <tytso@....edu>
To:	Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>
Cc:	Jeff Garzik <jeff@...zik.org>, Matt Mackall <mpm@...enic.com>,
	Mike McGrath <mmcgrath@...hat.com>,
	Jon Masters <jonathan@...masters.org>,
	Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	Ray Lee <ray@...rabbit.org>, Adrian Bunk <bunk@...nel.org>,
	Marc Haber <mh+linux-kernel@...schlus.de>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, hmh@...ian.org
Subject: Re: entropy gathering (was Re: Why does reading from /dev/urandom
	deplete entropy so much?)

On Sat, Dec 08, 2007 at 09:42:39PM +0100, Willy Tarreau wrote:
> I remember having installed openssh on an AIX machines years ago, and
> being amazed by the number of sources it collected entropy from. Simple
> commands such as "ifconfig -a", "netstat -i" and "du -a", "ps -ef", "w"
> provided a lot of entropy.

Well.... not as many bits of entropy as you might think.  But every
little bit helps, especially if some of it is not available to
adversary.

							- Ted
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