[145505] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Persisting /dev/random state across reboots
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Thierry Moreau)
Thu Jul 29 16:53:45 2010
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:51:50 -0400
From: Thierry Moreau <thierry.moreau@connotech.com>
To: Richard Salz <rsalz@us.ibm.com>
CC: Cryptography <cryptography@metzdowd.com>
In-Reply-To: <OFD5E803DB.7638E3CA-ON8525776F.006C7332-8525776F.006CABEB@us.ibm.com>
Richard Salz wrote:
> At shutdown, a process copies /dev/random to /var/random-seed which is
> used on reboots.
> Is this a good, bad, or "shrug, whatever" idea?
> I suppose the idea is that "all startup procs look the same" ?
>
> tnx.
First look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urandom
There is a tremendous value in the Linux kernel technology, including
extensive peer review from an IT security perspective.
If you think there are security requirements not met (e.g. assurance of
entropy characteristics, assurance of implementation configuration
sanity), then you should state your design goals. Only thereafter we get
an understanding of good, bad, or more relevant: improved.
Regards,
--
- Thierry Moreau
CONNOTECH Experts-conseils inc.
9130 Place de Montgolfier
Montreal, QC, Canada H2M 2A1
Tel. +1-514-385-5691
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