Linux 3.15 Random To Support Intel's RDSEED

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 3.15 Random To Support Intel's RDSEED

The Linux 3.15 kernel's /dev/random implementation will feature a new instruction of Intel's upcoming Broadwell processors...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTY1NDY

[KillaW0lf04]

Phoronix: Linux 3.15 Random To Support Intel's RDSEED

The Linux 3.15 kernel's /dev/random implementation will feature a new instruction of Intel's upcoming Broadwell processors...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTY1NDY

I had asked about how Intel's RDRAND could possibly compromise entropy on StackExchange a while ago. Maybe it will be of interest to anyone seeing this article: http://crypto.stackexchange.com/ques...romise-entropy

[oleid]

Fine, as it won't be the only source for randomness to be used...

[mirza]

Since this chip was designed way before Snowden happened, this instruction most probably has nothing to do with randomness.

[droidhacker]

Is it fully 100% NSA compliant?

[Szzz]

the RDSEED instruction is supported with Broadwell hardware for seeding /dev/random.

There is no seed for /dev/random, as it intended to be 100% true random. Seeding is for pseudorandom number generators.

[erendorn]

There is no seed for /dev/random, as it intended to be 100% true random. Seeding is for pseudorandom number generators.

You can seed /dev/random. In a sense, it is actually seeded by environmental noises. Using a hardware generator can be used to get the required entropy faster, especially early after boot, even more so on predictably functioning machines.

[Ericg]

Linus has already gone over this multiple times. /dev/random and /dev/urandom aren't seeded by a single source. They get used as one of many sources so even if one source is bad, the "bad' gets flushed out by the added entropy from other sources.

[Caledar]

Is it fully 100% NSA compliant?

I should think so.

But how to tell...?

[strcat]

There is no seed for /dev/random, as it intended to be 100% true random. Seeding is for pseudorandom number generators.

/dev/random is also a pseudo-random number generator. It's not safe to use the unconditioned entropy because it has varying quality so it's not exposed.

http://www.2uo.de/myths-about-urandom/