Random numbers
Kent Borg
kentborg at borg.org
Tue Nov 9 12:48:56 UTC 2010
I wrote:
> Not toast by a long shot. Use the default.
> /dev/urandom is getting lots of entropy from the network card.
It turns out everything I said was true, except the powers-that-be in
the L:inux kernel have been turning off all network cards entropy
sources. I think they are wrong, but they are running things.
So, of you use the default, your computer could be badly starved of
entropy. If you want to change the default you have to recompile your
kernel. Grrr.
So I was wrong. The default used to get entropy, but now is starved. I
didn't know that change had been made. Apologies for posting inaccurate
information.
My arguments for why a network card is a good entropy source still
stand, but they are not shared by those who matter.
-kb
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