Re: Why does reading from /dev/urandom deplete entropy so much?

Bill Davidsen
2007-12-11T15:25:26Z

Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 06, 2007 at 02:32:05PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:
>
>> ...
>> Sounds like a local DoS attack point to me...
>>
>
> As long as /dev/random is readable for all users there's no reason to
> use /dev/urandom for a local DoS...
>

The original point was that urandom draws entropy from random, and that
it is an an inobvious and unintentional drain on the entropy pool. At
least that's how I read it. I certainly have programs which draw on
urandom simply because it's a convenient source of meaningless data. I
have several fewer since this discussion started, though, now that I
have looked at the easy alternatives.

--
Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
"Woe unto the statesman who makes war without a reason that will still
be valid when the war is over..." Otto von Bismark