Re: [PATCH 1/1] virtio: rng: add derating factor for use by hwrng core

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Mon Aug 11 2014 - 18:11:16 EST


On 08/11/2014 11:49 AM, Amit Shah wrote:
> The khwrngd thread is started when a hwrng device of sufficient
> quality is registered. The virtio-rng device is backed by the
> hypervisor, and we trust the hypervisor to provide real entropy. A
> malicious hypervisor is a scenario that's ruled out, so we are certain
> the quality of randomness we receive is perfectly trustworthy. Hence,
> we use 100% for the factor, indicating maximum confidence in the source.
>
> Signed-off-by: Amit Shah <amit.shah@xxxxxxxxxx>

It isn't "ruled out", it is just irrelevant: if the hypervisor is
malicious, the quality of your random number source is the least of your
problems.

-hpa


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