Re: [PATCH v2 1/9] random: use RDSEED instead of RDRAND in entropy extraction

Dominik Brodowski
2022-02-09T08:37:12Z

Am Wed, Feb 09, 2022 at 02:19:11AM +0100 schrieb Jason A. Donenfeld:
> When /dev/random was directly connected with entropy extraction, without
> any expansion stage, extract_buf() was called for every 10 bytes of data
> read from /dev/random. For that reason, RDRAND was used rather than
> RDSEED. At the same time, crng_reseed() was still only called every 5
> minutes, so there RDSEED made sense.
>
> Those olden days were also a time when the entropy collector did not use
> a cryptographic hash function, which meant most bets were off in terms
> of real preimage resistance. For that reason too it didn't matter
> _that_ much whether RDSEED was mixed in before or after entropy
> extraction; both choices were sort of bad.
>
> But now we have a cryptographic hash function at work, and with that we
> get real preimage resistance. We also now only call extract_entropy()
> every 5 minutes, rather than every 10 bytes. This allows us to do two
> important things.
>
> First, we can switch to using RDSEED in extract_entropy(), as Dominik
> suggested. Second, we can ensure that RDSEED input always goes into the
> cryptographic hash function with other things before being used
> directly. This eliminates a category of attacks in which the CPU knows
> the current state of the crng and knows that we're going to xor RDSEED
> into it, and so it computes a malicious RDSEED. By going through our
> hash function, it would require the CPU to compute a preimage on the
> fly, which isn't going to happen.
>
> Cc: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
> Reviewed-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@google.com>
> Suggested-by: Dominik Brodowski <linux@dominikbrodowski.net>
> Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@zx2c4.com>

Reviewed-by: Dominik Brodowski <linux@dominikbrodowski.net>

Thanks,
Dominik