Your comment implies that Linus trusts Intel. This is not true, since the change is unnecessary even if they were infiltrated: "Long answer: we use rdrand as _

Your comment implies that Linus trusts Intel. This is not true, since the change is unnecessary even if they were infiltrated: "Long answer: we use rdrand as _one_ of many inputs into the random pool, and we use it as a way to _improve_ that random pool. So even if rdrand were to be back-doored by the NSA, our use of rdrand actually improves the quality of the random numbers you get from /dev/random." http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/linus-torvalds-remove-rdrand-from-dev-random-4/responses/9066 http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/linus-torvalds-remove-...