Re: [PATCH] API for true Random Number Generators to add entropy (2.6.11)

Pavel Machek
2005-03-29T10:43:55Z

On Pá 25-03-05 17:13:11, Herbert Xu wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 25, 2005 at 09:16:01AM +0300, Evgeniy Polyakov wrote:
> > On Fri, 2005-03-25 at 00:58 -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> >
> > > If its disabled by default, then you and 2-3 other people will use this
> > > feature. Not enough justification for a kernel API at that point.
> >
> > It is only because there are only couple of HW crypto devices
> > in the tree, with one crypto framework inclusion there will be
> > at least redouble.
>
> You missed the point. This has nothing to do with the crypto API.
> Jeff is saying that if this is disabled by default, then only a few
> users will enable it and therefore use this API.
>
> Since we can't afford to enable it by default as hardware RNG may
> fail which can lead to catastrophic consequences, there is no point
> for this API at all.

What catastrophic consequences? Noone is likely to even *notice*, and
it does not help practical attack at all. Unless hardware RNGs are
*very* flakey (like, more flakey than harddrives), this is not a problem.

I can assure you that failing hdd will have more catastrophic
consequences.
Pavel
--
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