From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752914AbaHMWov (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:44:51 -0400 Received: from imap.thunk.org ([74.207.234.97]:59211 "EHLO imap.thunk.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751719AbaHMWos (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:44:48 -0400 Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:44:40 -0400 From: "Theodore Ts'o" To: Rusty Russell Cc: Linus Torvalds , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, hpa@linux.intel.com, Amos Kong , ricardo.neri-calderon@linux.intel.com, Amit Shah Subject: Re: [PATCH] virtio: rng: add derating factor for use by hwrng core Message-ID: <20140813224440.GA10808@thunk.org> Mail-Followup-To: Theodore Ts'o , Rusty Russell , Linus Torvalds , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, hpa@linux.intel.com, Amos Kong , ricardo.neri-calderon@linux.intel.com, Amit Shah References: <87zjf88awc.fsf@rustcorp.com.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87zjf88awc.fsf@rustcorp.com.au> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: tytso@thunk.org X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No (on imap.thunk.org); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 04:39:07AM +0930, Rusty Russell wrote: > The khwrngd thread is started when a hwrng device of sufficient > quality is registered. The virtio-rng device is backed by the > hypervisor, and we trust the hypervisor to provide real entropy. > > A malicious hypervisor is a scenario that's irrelevant -- such a setup > is bound to cause all sorts of badness, and a compromised hwrng is not > the biggest threat. s/malicious/malicious or badly implemented/ s/is not the biggest threat/is the least of the user's worries/ > Given this, we are certain the quality of randomness we receive is > perfectly trustworthy. Hence, we use 100% for the factor, indicating > maximum confidence in the source. s/we are certain/we might as well assume that/ I won't insist on the wording changes, but I think it's a better way of phrasing things. Cheers, - Ted