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Date:      Thu, 26 Oct 2000 18:08:15 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Wesley Morgan <morganw@chemicals.tacorp.com>
To:        Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk>
Cc:        Doug Barton <DougB@gorean.org>, Ed Hall <edhall@weirdnoise.com>, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: entropy reseeding is totally broken 
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010261757580.6460-100000@volatile.chemicals.tacorp.com>
In-Reply-To: <5033.972597123@critter>

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On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:

> I don't really care that much how good my random bits are right after
> boot, but I do care about my machine coming up quickly.

I don't know about that, look at your boot logs:

Oct 26 17:32:19 catalyst /boot/kernel/kernel: Copyright (c) 1992-2000 The FreeBSD Project.
Oct 26 17:32:19 catalyst /boot/kernel/kernel: Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
Oct 26 17:32:23 catalyst sshd[193]: Generating 768 bit RSA key.
Oct 26 17:32:23 catalyst sshd[193]: RSA key generation complete.

Those times aren't correct I'm sure, but if I can't get enough entropy for 
a 768 bit key _very soon_ after boot, we could have a problem.

Somehow, I think everyone should care about that.

> 
> Add a /etc/rc.conf knob which says
> 
> 	wait_until_entropy_collected=YES

Why not be secure by default and have

	i_dont_care_about_entropy=NO

-- 
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          FreeBSD: The Power To Serve                  _ |___/___/___/
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