Messages in this thread | | | From | "H. Peter Anvin" <> | Subject | [PATCH v2 0/2] random: Account for entropy loss due to overwrites | Date | Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:27:46 -0800 |
| |
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@linux.intel.com>
When we write entropy into a non-empty pool, we currently don't account at all for the fact that we will probabilistically overwrite some of the entropy in that pool. This means that unless the pool is fully empty, we are currently *guaranteed* to overestimate the amount of entropy in the pool!
This version of the patchset avoids manually duplicating information by using a macro. This removes *all* dynamic computation of derived pool information and replaces them with static information: on just about every architecture accessing pointer+offset is no more expensive than just plain pointer, and this lets us get the information we actually need from the start.
| |