Re: entropy gathering (was Re: Why does reading from /dev/urandom deplete entropy so much?)

Jeff Garzik
2007-12-08T20:05:45Z

Matt Mackall wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 08, 2007 at 02:36:33PM -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
>> As an aside...
>>
>> Speaking as the maintainer rng-tools, which is the home of the hardware
>> RNG entropy gathering daemon...
>>
>> I wish somebody (not me) would take rngd and several other projects, and
>> combine them into a single actively maintained "entropy gathering" package.
>
> I think we should re-evaluate having an internal path from the hwrngs
> to /dev/[u]random, which will reduce the need for userspace config
> that can go wrong.

That's a bit of a tangent on a tangent. :) Most people don't have a
hardware RNG.

But as long as there are adequate safeguards against common hardware
failures (read: FIPS testing inside the kernel), go for it.

Jeff