From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ben Hutchings Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM Flag to forcedeth Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2010 02:09:24 +0100 Message-ID: <20101010010924.GB15074@solarflare.com> References: <4CB0FEA6.3030206@netscape.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org To: Patrick Simmons Return-path: Received: from exchange.solarflare.com ([216.237.3.220]:58167 "EHLO exchange.solarflare.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754806Ab0JJBJ1 (ORCPT ); Sat, 9 Oct 2010 21:09:27 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4CB0FEA6.3030206@netscape.net> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Patrick Simmons wrote: > This patch adds the IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM flag to the forcedeth driver, > allowing the interrupt timing for forcedeth to be used for entropy > generation. This should help /dev/random generate more secure random > numbers on machines using this driver. [...] We don't enable this for network drivers any more because: 1. At high packet rates, interrupt moderation makes interrupts very regular. 2. At low packet rates, a malicious sender can control the interrupt timing. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare Communications Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job. They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.