From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752964Ab1GaCmS (ORCPT ); Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:42:18 -0400 Received: from out2.smtp.messagingengine.com ([66.111.4.26]:33448 "EHLO out2.smtp.messagingengine.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752559Ab1GaCmM (ORCPT ); Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:42:12 -0400 X-Sasl-enc: aYaKjf6NH8avPwvipMG8Bwpf0AH9We08Jnk5LcpGvn9I 1312080131 Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 23:42:09 -0300 From: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh To: Bryan Donlan Cc: Linus Torvalds , George Spelvin , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, mpm@selenic.com, tytso@mit.edu Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] random: Add support for architectural random hooks Message-ID: <20110731024208.GA30593@khazad-dum.debian.net> References: <20110730234630.7270.qmail@science.horizon.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1024D/1CDB0FE3 5422 5C61 F6B7 06FB 7E04 3738 EE25 DE3F 1CDB 0FE3 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sat, 30 Jul 2011, Bryan Donlan wrote: > In any case though, what about my suggestion - don't mess with urandom > at all, and let udev replace the /dev/urandom device node with one > directed to a fast hwrng device if one is detected? This has zero Now, THAT would be unsafe, and a nasty way to go about it. If you really don't want to touch /dev/.random, make it simple: either export the embedded RNG as high-bandwidth /dev/hwrandom and let userspace postprocess it and reroute it back to /dev/random as needed, or do the same with a kernel thread. -- "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh