From: Matt Mackall Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/5] tsc: wire up entropy generation function Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:00:32 -0500 Message-ID: <1308074432.15617.136.camel@calx> References: <1308002818-27802-1-git-send-email-jarod@redhat.com> <1308002818-27802-5-git-send-email-jarod@redhat.com> <4DF690E4.1060004@zytor.com> <4DF6ADD0.6080607@borg.org> <4DF6BDB4.2060201@zytor.com> <4DF75688.2050509@borg.org> <1308062037.15617.71.camel@calx> <4DF79EF1.3010004@borg.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" , Venkatesh Pallipadi , Jarod Wilson , linux-crypto@vger.kernel.org, Thomas Gleixner , Ingo Molnar , John Stultz , Herbert Xu , "David S. Miller" , Suresh Siddha To: Kent Borg Return-path: Received: from waste.org ([173.11.57.241]:34382 "EHLO waste.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751768Ab1FNSAg (ORCPT ); Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:00:36 -0400 In-Reply-To: <4DF79EF1.3010004@borg.org> Sender: linux-crypto-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, 2011-06-14 at 13:48 -0400, Kent Borg wrote: > Matt Mackall wrote: > > Kent Borg wrote: > >>So network entropy is being eradicated, and nothing is being done to > >>replace it. > > > >Nothing is being done is a more accurate summary of the situation. > > > So the feature-removal-schedule.txt entry about IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM is > obsolete? > > (Then the trend from three network drivers to ten network drivers should > be accelerated and restore we should restore the deleted instances of > IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM??) > > > -kb, the Kent who sees network adapter interrupt timing as a usually > good source of entropy. It's a great source of potential entropy, a bad source of guaranteed entropy. The current RNG tries to do accounting on the latter. Accounting on the former is extremely suspect. -- Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.