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Date:      Tue, 18 Jul 2000 10:47:35 -0400
From:      Dan Moschuk <dan@FreeBSD.org>
To:        David Malone <dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie>
Cc:        Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.org>, Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk>, current@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: randomdev entropy gathering is really weak
Message-ID:  <20000718104735.D1221@spirit.jaded.net>
In-Reply-To: <20000718111534.A20086@walton.maths.tcd.ie>; from dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie on Tue, Jul 18, 2000 at 11:15:34AM %2B0100
References:  <200007171459.QAA00888@grimreaper.grondar.za> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007171315510.49901-100000@freefall.freebsd.org> <20000718111534.A20086@walton.maths.tcd.ie>

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| I think there are other practical issues too. Unless the new libfetch
| fetch supports https this won't work. More to the point, I'd
| guess https needs a working /dev/random to set up the secure
| connection, but we're running fetch to set up /dev/random.
| 
| How much entropy can we get from:
| 
| 	(date; dmesg ; sysctl -X; vmstat -i ) > /dev/random
| 
| Just playing it looks like you might get 4 so bits from the
| rtc and clk interupt count alone.

None.  Any data that is publically available via userland should not be
used for cryptography.

-Dan


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