Linux 4.18 Lands Random Patch To Fix Slow Boot Times For Some Systemd-Based Boxes

That protection is by mixing entropy sent in from user-space with RdRand. While not everyone trusts Intel's RdRand hardware, the CPU jitter RNG isn't necessarily the safest either but this is basically mixing the two together to create a bit more randomness than relying upon a single source. See the aforelinked article for more background information on the situation and how the lack of entropy was leading to stalled boot processes for some Linux systems -- particularly VMs -- over the lack of entropy following a recent CVE change.
As of this weekend in Linux 4.18 Git, the change has landed after originally being queued for the "-next" cycle (Linux 4.19) but then Ted Ts'o deciding to get this change into 4.18.
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