linux-kernel - Re: Linux 5.3-rc8

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Message-ID: <20190916231103.bic65ab4ifv7vhio@srcf.ucam.org>
Date:   Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:11:03 +0100
From:   Matthew Garrett <mjg59@...f.ucam.org>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>, Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>,
        Vito Caputo <vcaputo@...garu.com>,
        "Ahmed S. Darwish" <darwish.07@...il.com>,
        Lennart Poettering <mzxreary@...inter.de>,
        Andreas Dilger <adilger.kernel@...ger.ca>,
        Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>, Ray Strode <rstrode@...hat.com>,
        William Jon McCann <mccann@....edu>,
        "Alexander E. Patrakov" <patrakov@...il.com>,
        zhangjs <zachary@...shancloud.com>, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org,
        lkml <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Linux 5.3-rc8

On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 04:05:47PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 4:02 PM Matthew Garrett <mjg59@...f.ucam.org> wrote:
> > Changing the default (even with kernel warnings) seems like
> > it risks people generating keys from an unseeded prng, and that seems
> > like a bad thing?
> 
> I agree that it's a horrible thing, but the fact that the default 0
> behavior had that "wait for entropy" is what now causes boot problems
> for people.

In one case we have "Systems don't boot, but you can downgrade your 
kernel" and in the other case we have "Your cryptographic keys are weak 
and you have no way of knowing unless you read dmesg", and I think 
causing boot problems is the better outcome here.

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59@...f.ucam.org