Hi!
> > Here is my reasoning. I'd like to quote drivers/char/random.c:
> > * add_interrupt_randomness() uses the inter-interrupt timing as random
> > * inputs to the entropy pool. Note that not all interrupts are good
> > * sources of randomness! For example, the timer interrupts is not a
> > * good choice, because the periodicity of the interrupts is too
> > * regular, and hence predictable to an attacker. Disk interrupts are
> > * a better measure, since the timing of the disk interrupts are more
> > * unpredictable.
> > *
> > * All of these routines try to estimate how many bits of randomness a
> > * particular randomness source. They do this by keeping track of the
> > * first and second order deltas of the event timings.
>
> Obviously the timer interrupt would be the worst idea ever. Its the
> same value (HZ) on almost all versions of Linux (Alpha being on example
> where it is not the same).
Actually, not quite. On 2.4.9 system, console kept interrupts disabled
for so long that timer interrupt was pretty good source of randomness.
Pavel
-- I'm pavel@ucw.cz. "In my country we have almost anarchy and I don't care." Panos Katsaloulis describing me w.r.t. patents at discuss@linmodems.org - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Oct 07 2001 - 21:00:16 EST