Re: [PATCH, RFC] random: introduce getrandom(2) system call

[Theodore Ts'o <tytso-3s7WtUTddSA@public.gmane.org>]

On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 03:00:45PM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> 
> And we'll be in a sad state in which we have a getrandom(2) syscall
> but there's no decent way to use srand without either opening
> /dev/urandom or mucking with AT_RANDOM.  And the latter barely works
> because I think that most (all?) glibc versions clear it after using
> it to initialize their stack canaries.

Sorry, I really don't think that supporting srand() is a good use of
getrandom(2).  If it's for non-crypto purposes, using getpid() and
time() is *just* *fine*.

If we add such a flag, my big fear is that it gets misused.  Sometimes
it does make sense to create interfaces that a strong point of view.
The primary use of getrandom(2) should be for cryptographic purposes,
and trying to avoid misuse should be the primary objective.

						- Ted