To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Path: not-for-mail
From: daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
Newsgroups: isaac.lists.linux-kernel
Subject: Re: Is writing to /dev/ramdom a security flaw (vserver project)
Date: 20 Oct 2001 00:26:45 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 9
Distribution: isaac
Message-ID: <9qqgc5$4ht$1@abraham.cs.berkeley.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20011019172309.4219c22e9a53@remtk.solucorp.qc.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mozart.cs.berkeley.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: 20 Oct 2001 00:26:45 GMT
Originator: daw@mozart.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org

Jacques Gelinas  wrote:
>Is this a security issue if an administrator of a vserver is allowed to write
>in /dev/random ?

If you're talking about write(2), it should be safe, since the entropy
count is not affected.  If you're talking about doing an ioctl(2) on
/dev/random, this is risky (since root can modify the entropy counter),
but it looks like all those code paths are protected by a capability
check, so my guess is that you're probably ok this, too.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/