Subject: Re: CVS commit: src/sys/netinet
To: Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino <itojun@NetBSD.org>
From: Daniel Carosone <dan@geek.com.au>
List: source-changes
Date: 09/06/2003 13:25:12
On Sat, Sep 06, 2003 at 12:24:55AM +0000, Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino wrote:
> 
> Module Name:	src
> Committed By:	itojun
> Date:		Sat Sep  6 00:24:54 UTC 2003
> 
> Modified Files:
> 	src/sys/netinet: ip_input.c
> 
> Log Message:
> backout previous, we don't know if arc4random() corrides on reboot.

It's been a while since I looked at it, but Thor and I went to some
effort a while ago to make sure that rnd(4) and arc4random() were
at least initialiased before being used.

There is certainly an issue of a shortage of good entropy early in
the boot process, so the "quality" of randomness should be questioned,
but for machines with rnd(4) there should not be collisions,
especially if there is a cycle counter. For machines without rnd(4),
it is possible, but all generators on such machines are suspect.

--
Dan.