Re: /dev/random: really secure?

[Philipp Rumpf <prumpf@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk>]

On Sun, Dec 17, 2000 at 10:50:57PM +0100, Karel Kulhavy wrote:
> I noticed peculiarities in the behaviour of the delta-delta-3 system for
> entropy estimation in the random.c code./ When I hold right alt or control, I
> get about 8 bits of entropy per repeat fro the /dev/random which is
> overestimated. I think the real entropy is 0 bits because it is absolutely
> deterministic when the interrupt comes. Am I right or is there any hidden

not absolutely, but we should ignore repeated keys that generate more than 
one scancode.

tytso, here's the patch to do it again:

--- linux/drivers/char/random.c	Sun Jul 30 18:01:23 2000
+++ linux-prumpf/drivers/char/random.c	Thu Sep 28 17:07:03 2000
@@ -763,10 +763,15 @@
 
 void add_keyboard_randomness(unsigned char scancode)
 {
-	static unsigned char last_scancode = 0;
-	/* ignore autorepeat (multiple key down w/o key up) */
-	if (scancode != last_scancode) {
-		last_scancode = scancode;
+	static unsigned char last_scancode[2] = { 0, 0 };
+
+	/* ignore autorepeat (multiple key down w/o key up).
+	 * add_keyboard_randomness is called twice for certain AT keyboard
+	 * keys, so we keep a longer history. */
+	if (scancode != last_scancode[0] &&
+	    scancode != last_scancode[1]) {
+		last_scancode[0] = last_scancode[1];
+		last_scancode[1] = scancode;
 		add_timer_randomness(&keyboard_timer_state, scancode);
 	}
 }

If we want to rely solely on the add_timer_randomness checks, we should
remove the autorepeat check completely.

	Philipp Rumpf
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