linux-kernel - Re: drivers/char/random.c needs a (new) maintainer

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Message-ID: <20201223170057.7c8fd710@ezekiel.suse.cz>
Date:   Wed, 23 Dec 2020 17:00:57 +0100
From:   Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@...e.cz>
To:     "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@...c4.com>
Cc:     Torsten Duwe <duwe@....de>,
        Marcelo Henrique Cerri <marcelo.cerri@...onical.com>,
        "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Stephan Müller <smueller@...onox.de>,
        Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>,
        Linux Crypto Mailing List <linux-crypto@...r.kernel.org>,
        Nicolai Stange <nstange@...e.de>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
        "Alexander E. Patrakov" <patrakov@...il.com>,
        "Ahmed S. Darwish" <darwish.07@...il.com>,
        Matthew Garrett <mjg59@...f.ucam.org>,
        Vito Caputo <vcaputo@...garu.com>,
        Andreas Dilger <adilger.kernel@...ger.ca>,
        Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>, Ray Strode <rstrode@...hat.com>,
        William Jon McCann <mccann@....edu>,
        zhangjs <zachary@...shancloud.com>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
        Florian Weimer <fweimer@...hat.com>,
        Lennart Poettering <mzxreary@...inter.de>,
        Peter Matthias <matthias.peter@....bund.de>,
        Neil Horman <nhorman@...hat.com>,
        Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@...radead.org>,
        Julia Lawall <julia.lawall@...ia.fr>,
        Dan Carpenter <dan.carpenter@...cle.com>,
        And y Lavr <andy.lavr@...il.com>,
        Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>,
        Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>, simo@...hat.com
Subject: Re: drivers/char/random.c needs a (new) maintainer

On Wed, 23 Dec 2020 15:32:55 +0100
"Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@...c4.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 3:17 PM Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@...e.cz> wrote:
> > Upfront, let me admit that SUSE has a vested interest in a FIPS-certifiable Linux kernel.  
> 
> Sorry, but just because you have a "vested interest", or a financial
> interest, or because you want it does not suddenly make it a good
> idea. The idea is to have good crypto, not to merely check some boxes

I never suggested that this should serve as a supportive argument. I was just trying to be honest about our motivations.

I'm a bit sad that this discussion has quickly gone back to the choice of algorithms and how they can be implemented. The real issue is that the RNG subsystem has not developed as fast as it could. This had not been much of an issue as long as nobody was really interested in making any substantial changes to that code, but it is more apparent now. Torsten believes it can be partly because of a maintainer who is too busy with other tasks, and he suggested we try to improve the situation by giving the RNG-related tasks to someone else.

I have not seen a clear answer to this suggestion, except Jason offering his helping hand with Nicolai's cleanup patches, but nothing wrt Stephan's patches. So, what is the plan?

Petr Tesarik
SUSE HW Enablement Team

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