Re: entropy gathering (was Re: Why does reading from /dev/urandom deplete entropy so much?)

[Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org>]

Matt Mackall wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 08, 2007 at 02:36:33PM -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > As an aside...
> >
> > Speaking as the maintainer rng-tools, which is the home of the hardware 
> > RNG entropy gathering daemon...
> >
> > I wish somebody (not me) would take rngd and several other projects, and 
> > combine them into a single actively maintained "entropy gathering" package.
>
> I think we should re-evaluate having an internal path from the hwrngs
> to /dev/[u]random, which will reduce the need for userspace config
> that can go wrong.

That's a bit of a tangent on a tangent.  :)  Most people don't have a 
hardware RNG.

But as long as there are adequate safeguards against common hardware 
failures (read: FIPS testing inside the kernel), go for it.

	Jeff



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