linux-kernel - Re: Perfectly Random

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.10.0810141902020.6244@asgard.lang.hm>
Date:	Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:03:51 -0700 (PDT)
From:	david@...g.hm
To:	Glenn Powers <glenn@...ning.com>
cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Perfectly Random

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008, Glenn Powers wrote:

> THE KERNEL MODULE WILL:
>
> Copy the current CPU clock tick of these interrupts to a ring buffer.
>
> THEN:
>
> A Linux-RTAI application will compute the entropy and transfer it to 
> /dev/random, a database or a network interface.
>
> THEN:
>
> The system can be tuned.
>
> THEN:
>
> The best tunings can be incorporated into the "RandomNuclear" module.

why can't userspace talk to this external hardware and get a count from 
it, and then insert it into the random pool without involving any kernel 
module?

also, anything that depends on the exact CPU clock tick of when interrupts 
happen has just sacraficed a LOT of it's randomness to the particulars of 
various motherboards.

David Lang
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/