Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 19 Dec 2000 12:49:48 +0100 | From | Kurt Garloff <> | Subject | Re: /dev/random: really secure? |
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On Mon, Dec 18, 2000 at 04:33:13PM -0500, Theodore Y. Ts'o wrote: > Note that writing to /dev/random does *not* update the entropy estimate, > for this very reason. The assumption is that inputs to the entropy > estimator have to be trusted, and since /dev/random is typically > world-writeable, it is not so trusted.
It should not be world-writeable, IMHO. So the only one who can feed entropy there is root, who should know aht (s)he's doing ... Here (SuSE Linux 7.x), it is 644: crw-r--r-- 1 root root 1, 8 Dec 17 22:41 /dev/random crw-r--r-- 1 root root 1, 9 Dec 17 22:41 /dev/urandom
Regards, -- Kurt Garloff <garloff@suse.de> Eindhoven, NL GPG key: See mail header, key servers Linux kernel development SuSE GmbH, Nuernberg, FRG SCSI, Security [unhandled content-type:application/pgp-signature] | |