On Sat, Feb 12, 2022 at 06:05:54PM -0500, Joshua Kinard wrote:
> On 2/11/2022 16:07, Jason A. Donenfeld wrote:
> > This is very much an RFC patch, or maybe even an RFG -- request for
> > grumbles. This topic has come up a million times, and usually doesn't go
> > anywhere. This time I thought I'd bring it up with a slightly narrower
> > focus. Before you read further, realize that I do not intend to merge
> > this without there being an appropriate amount of consensus for it and
> > discussion about it.
> >
> > Ever since Linus' 50ee7529ec45 ("random: try to actively add entropy
> > rather than passively wait for it"), the RNG does a haveged-style jitter
> > dance around the scheduler, in order to produce entropy (and credit it)
> > for the case when we're stuck in wait_for_random_bytes(). How ever you
> > feel about the Linus Jitter Dance is beside the point: it's been there
> > for three years and usually gets the RNG initialized in a second or so.
> >
What about the case where a small amount of entropy is avalable?
> >
> > As a matter of fact, this is what happens currently when people use
> > getrandom(2).
> >
> > So, given that the kernel has grown this mechanism for seeding itself
> > from nothing, and that this procedure happens pretty fast, maybe there's
> > no point any longer in having /dev/urandom give insecure bytes. In the
> > past we didn't want the boot process to deadlock, which was
> > understandable. But now, in the worst case, a second goes by, and the
> > problem is resolved. It seems like maybe we're finally at a point when
> > we can get rid of the infamous "urandom read hole".
> >
Why not keep the distinction between /dev/random and /dev/urandom when a
good entropy source is not avalable?
> >
> > Maybe. And this is why this is a request for grumbles patch: the Linus
> > Jitter Dance relies on random_get_entropy() returning a cycle counter
> > value. The first lines of try_to_generate_entropy() are:
> >
> > stack.now = random_get_entropy();
> > /* Slow counter - or none. Don't even bother */
> > if (stack.now == random_get_entropy())
> > return;
> >
> > So it would appear that what seemed initially like a panacea does not in
> > fact work everywhere. Where doesn't it work?
> >
> > On every platform, random_get_entropy() is connected to get_cycles(),
> > except for three: m68k, MIPS, and RISC-V.
> >
>
> [snip]
>
> >
> > I think what this adds up to is that this change would positively affect
> > everybody, except for _possibly_ negatively affecting poorly configured
> > non-Amiga m68k systems and the MIPS R6000 and R6000A. Does that analysis
> > seem correct to folks reading, or did I miss something?
> >
> > Are there other cases where the cycle counter does exist but is simply
> > too slow? Perhaps some computer historians can chime in here.
> >
> > [snip]
This should realy be a config flag. (URANDOM_SECURE_RANDOM?).
>
>
> --
> Joshua Kinard
> Gentoo/MIPS
> kumba@xxxxxxxxxx
> rsa6144/5C63F4E3F5C6C943 2015-04-27
> 177C 1972 1FB8 F254 BAD0 3E72 5C63 F4E3 F5C6 C943
>
> "The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And
> our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between."
>
> --Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic
