From owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 21 01:54:33 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2748466F for ; Mon, 21 Jul 2014 01:54:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hergotha.csail.mit.edu (wollman-1-pt.tunnel.tserv4.nyc4.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f06:ccb::2]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D3E6E23D6 for ; Mon, 21 Jul 2014 01:54:32 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hergotha.csail.mit.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hergotha.csail.mit.edu (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id s6L1sQ1a019494; Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:54:29 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu) Received: (from wollman@localhost) by hergotha.csail.mit.edu (8.14.7/8.14.4/Submit) id s6L1sQVD019491; Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:54:26 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from wollman) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <21452.29394.37555.179586@hergotha.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:54:26 -0400 From: Garrett Wollman To: Benjamin Kaduk Subject: Re: Speed and security of /dev/urandom In-Reply-To: References: <53C85F42.1000704@pyro.eu.org> <20140719190348.GM45513@funkthat.com> <20140719192605.GV93733@kib.kiev.ua> <53CAD950.1010609@pyro.eu.org> <20140719205350.GX93733@kib.kiev.ua> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.4 (patch 22) "Instant Classic" XEmacs Lucid X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (hergotha.csail.mit.edu [127.0.0.1]); Sun, 20 Jul 2014 21:54:29 -0400 (EDT) X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS autolearn=disabled version=3.4.0 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on hergotha.csail.mit.edu X-Mailman-Approved-At: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 02:05:37 +0000 Cc: freebsd-security@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-security@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: "Security issues \[members-only posting\]" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 01:54:33 -0000 < said: > I think there is a lot of value in providing a syscall interface which can > be the default way for applications to retrieve random bits. The OpenBSD guys have proposed a new posix_XXXX_random() family of interfaces (XXXX being undecided as yet) to the Austin Group, specifically for this purpose. We should implement it. (It need not be a direct system-call interface, but for security it should not rely on being able to open any particular file or device.) -GAWollman