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Why don’t all computers provide a random hardware generator? Randomness is trivial in dedicated hardware..
by thehappypm 5y ago
Why don’t all computers provide a random hardware generator? Randomness is trivial in dedicated hardware..
- willis936 5y agoIt is but you need to trust the hardware. Trust is the keyword here. Long battles have been fought over this. Many high profile authors have (successfully) argued against the use of unauditable sources of entropy being used in /dev/random. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDRAND#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDRAND#Reception
- hypertele-Xii 5y agoIf you don't trust the hardware, any software you run on it is already compromised.
- Vecr 5y agoYeah, but having a broken RNG in unauditable encrypted obfuscated microcode is more likely to go undetected than something hotter and more critical for performance, but even then meltdown and spectre took a long time to figure out.
- caf 5y agoBecause some computers are a 10c part in a 50c device.
- ironmagma 5y agoAre they the same computers running Linux though?
- bhawks 5y agoYes Linux has a tremendous existing embedded footprint across a number of interesting minimally specced devices. You (and everyone) should care because of the ever expanding internet of things movement connecting these devices up to the rest of the computing universe. This represents a brand new frontier for attack surfaces and if the kernel cannot provide foundational entropy there's no plausible security story for the rest of the stack. The cynic would be quick to point out that IoT is a nitemare anyway and even if the kernel gives the tools the manufacturer needs to use them and use them in the right way.
- ironmagma 5y agoI’d be more convinced by an example of a 10c microprocessor that can run Linux. Obviously it sounds better to support everything, but there also are (and should be) bounds to what Linux should try to support.