seeding dev/random in 5.5

[Michael Scheidell]

R. B. Riddick wrote:
>>     
> I was under the impression, that
>   kern.random.sys.harvest.ethernet
> is
>   1
> by default.
>
> That would mean, that ethernet traffic to that deeply buried box should feed
> that /dev/random until it is fat and round...
>
> Why do u believe, that /dev/random isnt seeded by networking?
>
>   
because it isn't.
and pings arn' going to produce much random data.

it might feed it LATER, saving to /var/db/entropy, but when the system
is booted, and there are no keys in /etc/ssh and rc.d/sshd tried to
generate enough to feed to /dev/random, it doesn't

At least in this case, this box, this os, this chipset.  Only one I have
see like this.
Its a showstopper.  Box won't start remote sshd, can only get at it via
console.

Not sure why the reluctance to even acknowledge that there could be a
minor fix/patch that could prevent dead box and a ${miles=hundreds) trek
to bring it back.

if its never happened to you, then you may not have the exact
combination I have.

I can reproduce it 100% of the time, every time, all day long.

Only two workarounds that I know of:
#1, put in more than 3 lines of garbage on console.
#2, put in more than 5 packets of garbage from ethernet
(which, acknowledged: if hacker is trying to seed known data to this
box, he could feed it known data)




-- 
Michael Scheidell, CTO
SECNAP Network Security / www.secnap.com
scheidell at secnap.net  / 1+561-999-5000, x 1131