[5343] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: linux-ipsec: Re: Summary re: /dev/random
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Henry Spencer)
Wed Aug 4 09:12:23 1999
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1999 08:44:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Henry Spencer <henry@spsystems.net>
To: Linux IPsec <linux-ipsec@clinet.fi>
Cc: tytso@MIT.EDU, cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.04.9908032134050.4004-100000@ultra.gawth.com>
On Tue, 3 Aug 1999, bram wrote:
> The goal is to make it so that any time someone wants random numbers they
> can go to /dev/random, with no required studying of entropy and threat
> models and all that yadda yadda yadda which most developers will
> rightfully recoil from getting into when all they want is a few random
> bytes.
That, surely, is what /dev/urandom is for. (Maybe /dev/random ought to
be mode rw-------, so that only root applications can use it?)
Henry Spencer
henry@spsystems.net
(henry@zoo.toronto.edu)
