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

Herbert Xu
2005-03-29T10:30:35Z

On Tue, Mar 29, 2005 at 12:18:16PM +0200, Pavel Machek wrote:
>
> I do not think paranoia about random generators is neccessary. If
> vendor provides you with random generator, it should be ok to just use
> it. [Did anyone see failing hw random generator, *at all*?] I can
> provide you with plenty of failing hdds....

We've been through this before. It's not a question of trusting the
hardware to be /dev/hw_random, it's a question of trusting it to be
/dev/random.

/dev/random is special in that we've gone to extraordinary lengths to
make sure that it contains the amount of entropy that we say it does.

So while it'd be perfectly OK to feed unverified data through
/dev/hw_random, the same cannot be done for /dev/random.
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