Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 11:37:58 -0400 From: "Jeroen C. van Gelderen" <jeroen@vangelderen.org> To: Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: randomdev entropy gathering is really weak Message-ID: <3979BFD6.9DFEE454@vangelderen.org> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007211849570.68809-100000@freefall.freebsd.org>
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Kris Kennaway wrote: > > On Fri, 21 Jul 2000, Mark Murray wrote: > > > Section 2.1, last paragraph: > > "If a system is shut down, and restarted, it is desirable to store some > > high-entropy data (such as the key) in non-volatile memory. This allows > > the PRNG to be restarted in an unguessable state at the next restart. We > > call this data the reseed file." > > I'm all for storing a sample at shutdown and using it to help seed the > PRNG at startup, but it shouldn't be the only seed used (for example, the > case where the system has never been shut down (cleanly) before and so has > no pre-existing seed file is a BIG corner case to consider since thats how > the system is at the time it first generates SSH keys after a fresh > install). > > It might be only an academic vulnerability, but if someone can read your > HD during the time the system is shut down then I'd prefer them not to > know the precise state when the system next starts up again. Yes, if they > can read they can probably also write, but it seems like a mistake when > there's nothing really gained by saving the complete state, as opposed to > an extract. Well, academic or not (not when you run financial transactioning systems on FreeBSD) you can edit rc.shutdown to not write out a seed file. You don't have to use it but it's good that it's there. Cheers, Jeroen -- Jeroen C. van Gelderen o _ _ _ jeroen@vangelderen.org _o /\_ _ \\o (_)\__/o (_) _< \_ _>(_) (_)/<_ \_| \ _|/' \/ (_)>(_) (_) (_) (_) (_)' _\o_ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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