cvs commit: src/sys/libkern arc4random.c

Poul-Henning Kamp phk at phk.freebsd.dk
Fri Aug 15 12:14:24 PDT 2003


In message <87953260.1060949270 at melange.errno.com>, Sam Leffler writes:
>
>Note that the data generated by arc4random needs to be exported to user 
>apps for seeding crypto operations when operating in a chroot'd environment 
>where /dev/random is not available.

I actually thought about that a bit, and I think "/dev/random" is
a wrong concept.

I think we should have a randomdata(2) system call instead.

Having a /dev/random which is sometimes (chroot/jail) means that
applications running under those circumstances are incredible fragile
to spoofing by creating a fake "/dev/random" in some way.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk at FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.


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