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I would prefer a cryptographer, not Linus, to weigh in on how Linux's PRNG works and what impact RdRand would have on it. It's not that I distrust Linus, it's j
by trebor 13y ago
I would prefer a cryptographer, not Linus, to weigh in on how Linux's PRNG works and what impact RdRand would have on it. It's not that I distrust Linus, it's just that it's hard to separate the vitriol from the facts. That, and a second opinion on the matter would settle it. That'd put the FUD to rest.
However, I found this message a good explanation of what RdRand is/does and how they're integrating it with /dev/random. http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-crypto/msg05883.html http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-crypto/msg05883.html
- simias 13y agoIf you're willing to believe Linux's PRNG is not biased in any way then you're fine, because anything ^ random -> random. That's the principle behind the one-time pads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad Worst case (say, a string of 0s) you don't add any entropy to the pool. But you can't actually remove entropy with a simple xor. Again, that's assuming there are no other weaknesses in the linux PRNG.
- hannibal5 13y agoLinus was responding to totally unsubstantiated request based on wrong information. The guy behind /dev/random is Ted Ts'o who has worked as Kerberos V5 project leader is part of security area directorate in IETF and chair of IPSec working group. As far as I see /dev/random uses the best practices and don't innovate unnecessarily. If somebody is willing to spend time actually vetting the implementation, that would be great.
- tptacek 13y agoWhoah whoah whoah let's not go too far here. There are things not to like about Linux devrandom. They have nothing to do with NSA backdoors, though.