Re: [PATCH v5 0/5] random,x86,kvm: Rework arch RNG seeds and get some from kvm

Theodore Ts'o
2014-08-13T14:32:20Z

On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 12:48:41AM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> The proposed arch_get_rng_seed() is not really what it claims to be; it
> most definitely does not produce seed-grade randomness, instead it seems
> to be an arch function for best-effort initialization of the entropy
> pools -- which is fine, it is just something quite different.

Without getting into an argument about which definition of "seed" is
correct --- it's certainly confusing and different form the RDSEED
usage of the word "seed".

Do we expect that anyone else besides arch_get_rnd_seed() would
actually want to use it? I'd argue no; we want the rest of the kernel
to either use get_random_bytes() or prandom_u32(). Given that, maybe
we should just call it arch_random_init(), and expect that the only
user of this interface would be drivers/char/random.c?

- Ted