Re: [PATCH v2] Allow hwrng to initialize crng.

From: Jarkko Sakkinen
Date: Fri Dec 14 2018 - 02:57:12 EST


On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 05:18:48PM +0800, Louis Collard wrote:
> Some systems, for example embedded systems, do not generate
> enough entropy on boot through interrupts, and boot may be blocked for
> several minutes waiting for a call to getrandom to complete.
>
> Currently, random data is read from a hwrng when it is registered,
> and is loaded into primary_crng. This data is treated in the same
> way as data that is device-specific but otherwise unchanging, and
> so primary_crng cannot become initialized with the data from the
> hwrng.
>
> This change causes the data initially read from the hwrng to be
> treated the same as subsequent data that is read from the hwrng if
> it's quality score is non-zero.
>
> The implications of this are:
>
> The data read from hwrng can cause primary_crng to become
> initialized, therefore avoiding problems of getrandom blocking
> on boot.
>
> Calls to getrandom (with GRND_RANDOM) may be using entropy
> exclusively (or in practise, almost exclusively) from the hwrng.
>
> Regarding the latter point; this behavior is the same as if a
> user specified a quality score of 1 (bit of entropy per 1024 bits)
> so hopefully this is not too scary a change to make.
>
> This change is the result of the discussion here:
> https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/10453893/

Please remove these two lines.

> Signed-off-by: Louis Collard <louiscollard@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Acked-by: Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko.sakkinen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---

The change log seems to be missing before diffstat, after dashes.

/Jarkko