From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sun, 19 Aug 2001 13:36:17 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sun, 19 Aug 2001 13:36:07 -0400 Received: from abraham.CS.Berkeley.EDU ([128.32.37.121]:54793 "EHLO paip.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sun, 19 Aug 2001 13:35:53 -0400 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Path: not-for-mail From: daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner) Newsgroups: isaac.lists.linux-kernel Subject: Re: /dev/random in 2.4.6 Date: 19 Aug 2001 17:32:42 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Distribution: isaac Message-ID: <9lot7q$pmg$4@abraham.cs.berkeley.edu> In-Reply-To: <20010817171834.A24850@thunk.org> <20010819111357.A3504@thunk.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: mozart.cs.berkeley.edu X-Trace: abraham.cs.berkeley.edu 998242362 26320 128.32.45.153 (19 Aug 2001 17:32:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@abraham.cs.berkeley.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 19 Aug 2001 17:32:42 GMT X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test74 (May 26, 2000) Originator: daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Theodore Tso wrote: >On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 03:05:39PM -0700, David Schwartz wrote: >> This is a non-issue providing the entropy pool code correctly >> estimates the amount of entropy. The Linux entropy code is written >> so that there is no harm from putting fully known or partially known >> numbers into the pool provided that the pool does not overestimate >> the amount of entropy in those numbers. > >The problem is that by being able to perfectly observe packets on the >LAN, you know a lot more about the numbers that are going in, and it's >therefore extremely likely that the entropy estimate will be >overestimated. Right. Therefore, it seems to me that the correct thing to do is to add network timings into the pool using an entropy estimate of zero.