On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 12:46:46PM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote: > On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 06:41:34AM -0400, Cole Robinson wrote: > > Libvirt currently rejects using host /dev/urandom as an input source for a > > virtio-rng device. The only accepted sources are /dev/random and /dev/hwrng. > > This is the result of discussions on qemu-devel around when the feature was > > first added (2013). Examples: > > > > http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2012-09/msg02387.html > > https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2013-03/threads.html#00023 > > > > libvirt's rejection of /dev/urandom has generated some complaints from users: > > > > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1074464 > > * cited: http://www.2uo.de/myths-about-urandom/ > > http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2016-March/msg01062.html > > http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2016-April/msg00186.html > > > > I think it's worth having another discussion about this, at least with a > > recent argument in one place so we can put it to bed. I'm CCing a bunch of > > people. I think the questions are: > > > > 1) is the original recommendation to never use virtio-rng+/dev/urandom correct? > > > > 2) regardless of #1, should we continue to reject that config in libvirt? > > There was a lot of internal-to-Red Hat discussion on this which I > can't reproduce here unfortunately. However the crux of it was that > it's quite safe to read enormous amounts from /dev/urandom, even > without adding any entropy at all, and use those numbers for > cryptographic purposes. I should clarify I mean: *after* the pool has been initialized with sufficient entropy in the first place (which happens very early in boot), you can then read almost indefinitely. Rich. > Steve: can we disclose the research that was done into this? If so > can you summarise the results for us? > > Rich. > > -- > Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones > Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com > virt-p2v converts physical machines to virtual machines. Boot with a > live CD or over the network (PXE) and turn machines into KVM guests. > http://libguestfs.org/virt-v2v > > -- > libvir-list mailing list > libvir-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libvir-list -- Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com virt-df lists disk usage of guests without needing to install any software inside the virtual machine. Supports Linux and Windows. http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-df/ -- libvir-list mailing list libvir-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libvir-list