Re: lib/25367: arc4random state is shared across forks

[David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR lib/25367; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: lib/25367: arc4random state is shared across forks
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 04:06:06 +0000

 On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 04:25:02PM +0000, David Laight wrote:
  >  Optimising getpid() (or having an optimised getpid() function) is one
  >  possibility. All that requires is for libc to zero the cached pid
  >  value in the child of fork().
  >  Although vfork() and others? may need special consideration.
 
 I think it's ok for a vfork child to share the arc4random state with
 its parent, because it'll be shared read/write rather than copied.
 
 -- 
 David A. Holland
 dholland%netbsd.org@localhost