Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 21:20:13 +0100 From: Brad Knowles <blk@skynet.be> To: Kris Kennaway <kris@hub.freebsd.org>, Dan Moschuk <dan@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>, Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG>, audit@FreeBSD.ORG, Warner Losh <imp@village.org> Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/i386/conf files.i386 src/sys/kern kern_fork.c src/sys/libkern arc4random.c src/sys/sys libkern.h Message-ID: <v0420551bb4688f87fb80@[195.238.21.204]> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.9911291103500.51314-100000@hub.freebsd.org> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.9911291103500.51314-100000@hub.freebsd.org>
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At 11:24 AM -0800 1999/11/29, Kris Kennaway wrote: > I don't know what Theodore Ts'o's credentials are, but I'm still much more > inclined to trust the work of someone who does this stuff for a living > than a part-time cryptographer. As I recall, he's one of the principles at MIT working on the freely available implementation of PGP, although I don't know his specific crypto background. > AFAIK no professional cryptographers have > taken a serious look at "our" (Linux/Open/FreeBSD) PRNG and the effects > of any random twiddles people may have done to them over time. This seems like a serious problem. I think we need to fix this as soon as we can, if we're going to have any credibility in our audit and security processes (I think we also need to get the commit process changed so as to help automate what we can of the audit/re-audit process). Does anyone have any further thoughts in this area? Anyone know of any available professional cryptographers who might be available to do this kind of work? Anybody got any better contacts with Greg Rose or Carl Ellison, or perhaps other cryptographers who might know of potentially interested/available parties? -- These are my opinions -- not to be taken as official Skynet policy ____________________________________________________________________ |o| Brad Knowles, <blk@skynet.be> Belgacom Skynet NV/SA |o| |o| Systems Architect, News & FTP Admin Rue Col. Bourg, 124 |o| |o| Phone/Fax: +32-2-706.11.11/12.49 B-1140 Brussels |o| |o| http://www.skynet.be Belgium |o| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Unix is like a wigwam -- no Gates, no Windows, and an Apache inside. Unix is very user-friendly. It's just picky who its friends are. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-audit" in the body of the message
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