Re: [RFC PATCH 0/5] CPU Jitter RNG

[JÃrn Engel]

On Tue, 4 February 2014 12:39:28 -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> 
> USB and the Ethernet PHY frequently do still have their own crystals,
> for reasons not entirely clear to me.  However, what all of these have
> in common is that they are way out in the periphery.

Storage might be another source.  We have had add_disk_randomness()
forever.  Flash also takes quite variable timings for writes and
erases.  Even if the timings are not random, they certainly change
from block to block and depending on wear.

I am less certain about reads.  But one can run a few experiments and
see how consistent the timings are.

JÃrn

--
Linux is more the core point of a concept that surrounds "open source"
which, in turn, is based on a false concept. This concept is that
people actually want to look at source code.
-- Rob Enderle
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