Re: [PATCH v3 00/11] rename random32 to prandom and introduce prandom_bytes()

Andrew Morton
2012-11-13T19:56:01Z

On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 22:36:59 +0900
Akinobu Mita <akinobu.mita@gmail.com> wrote:

> This patchset introduces new functions into random32 library for
> getting the requested number of pseudo-random bytes.
>
> Before introducing these new functions into random32 library,
> rename all random32 functions to have 'prandom_' prefix. As a result
> the function prototypes are as follows:
>
> void prandom_seed(u32 seed); /* rename from srandom32() */
> u32 prandom_u32(void); /* rename from random32() */
> void prandom_bytes(void *buf, int nbytes);
>
> void prandom_seed_state(struct rnd_state *state, u64 seed);
> /* rename from prandom32_seed() */
> u32 prandom_u32_state(struct rnd_state *state);
> /* rename from prandom32() */
> void prandom_bytes_state(struct rnd_state *state, void *buf, int nbytes);
>
> The purpose of this renaming is to prevent some kernel developers
> from assuming that prandom32() and random32() might imply that only
> prandom32() was the one using a pseudo-random number generator by
> prandom32's "p", and the result may be a very embarassing security
> exposure. This concern was expressed by Theodore Ts'o.

There were a large number of rejects in MTD code, due to pending
changes in linux-next. It's all quite mechanical stuff which I
fixed up. Please check the result.