From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@linux.intel.com>
To: Amit Shah <amit.shah@redhat.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>,
Virtualization List <virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org>,
kvm list <kvm@vger.kernel.org>,
jgarzik@bitpay.com, duwe@lst.de, Amos Kong <akong@redhat.com>,
ricardo.neri-calderon@linux.intel.com, tytso@mit.edu,
herbert@gondor.apana.org.au
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1] virtio: rng: add derating factor for use by hwrng core
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:11:03 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <53E93F77.9030305@linux.intel.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <6f2df652355d6e78da846d06e32489b7d9cdfcc2.1407782982.git.amit.shah@redhat.com>
On 08/11/2014 11:49 AM, Amit Shah wrote:
> The khwrngd thread is started when a hwrng device of sufficient
> quality is registered. The virtio-rng device is backed by the
> hypervisor, and we trust the hypervisor to provide real entropy. A
> malicious hypervisor is a scenario that's ruled out, so we are certain
> the quality of randomness we receive is perfectly trustworthy. Hence,
> we use 100% for the factor, indicating maximum confidence in the source.
>
> Signed-off-by: Amit Shah <amit.shah@redhat.com>
It isn't "ruled out", it is just irrelevant: if the hypervisor is
malicious, the quality of your random number source is the least of your
problems.
-hpa
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2014-08-11 22:11 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2014-08-11 18:49 [PATCH 1/1] virtio: rng: add derating factor for use by hwrng core Amit Shah
2014-08-11 18:49 ` Amit Shah
2014-08-11 22:11 ` H. Peter Anvin [this message]
2014-08-12 5:27 ` Amit Shah
2014-08-12 5:27 ` Amit Shah
2014-08-12 14:59 ` H. Peter Anvin
2014-08-12 14:59 ` H. Peter Anvin
2014-08-11 22:11 ` H. Peter Anvin
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