Re: [net-next PATCH] etherdevice.h: random_ether_addr update

[Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@vyatta.com>]

On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:20:42 -0700
Joe Perches <joe@perches.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 2009-09-11 at 12:15 -0700, David Miller wrote:
> > From: Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>
> > Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:02:43 -0700
> > > On Thu, 2009-09-10 at 19:07 -0700, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> > >> On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:48:27 -0700
> > >> Jeff Kirsher <jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel.com> wrote:
> > >> > From: Gregory Rose <gregory.v.rose@intel.com>
> > >> > This patch changes the default VF MAC address generation to use an Intel
> > >> > Organizational Unit Identifier (OUI), instead of a fully randomized
> > >> > Ethernet address.  This is to help prevent accidental MAC address
> > >> > collisions.
> > > I think this not a very good idea.
> > I also completely agree that this patch is not a wise move.
> 
> Perhaps this?
> 
> random_ether_address should not assign an "0x02" leading octet.
> 
> "02" has the local assignment bit set,
> but is actually a value assigned via OUI.
> 
> Do not use get_random_bytes to avoid drawing down entropy pool.
> 

Getting 6 bytes once is not going to be enough of a problem
to drain the pool. I prefer not to weaken the randomness here.


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