Re: [PATCH] random: add blocking facility to urandom

Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
2011-09-07T21:20:40Z

On 09/07/2011 10:02 PM, Steve Grubb wrote:

> When a system is underattack, do you really want to be using a PRNG
> for anything like seeding openssl? Because a PRNG is what urandom
> degrades into when its attacked.

Using a PRNG is not a problem. Making sure it is well seeded and no
input from the attacker can compromise its state are the difficult
parts. Making predictable estimates and blocking when your estimates are
off, makes it a good target for DoS. When your system is under attack,
you want to use your services. If they block then the attack might
have just been successful.

regards,
Nikos