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Re: regarding the changes to kernel entropy gathering



At Mon, 5 Apr 2021 01:05:58 +0200, Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg%bec.de@localhost> wrote:
Subject: Re: regarding the changes to kernel entropy gathering
>
> Part of the problem here is that most of the non-RNG data sources are
> easily observable either from the local system (e.g. any malicious user)
> or other VMs on the same machine (in case of a hypervisor) or local
> machines on the same network (in case of network interrupts).

It _Just_ _Doesn't_ _Matter_  (i.e. for many of us, most of the time).

Now ideally in the hypervisor scenario we would have a backend device
that read from /dev/random and offered it to the VM guest as a virtual
hardware RNG.  Or maybe it's as simple as passing a those few bytes
through a custom Xenstore string and having a script in the VM read them
and inject them into /dev/random.  But that's not been done yet.

BTW, personally, on at least on some machines, I don't have any worry
whatsoever at the moment about one VM guest spying on, or influencing
the PRNG, in another.  Zero worry.  They're all _me_.  I don't need some
theoretically perfect level of protection from myself.

--
					Greg A. Woods <gwoods%acm.org@localhost>

Kelowna, BC     +1 250 762-7675           RoboHack <woods%robohack.ca@localhost>
Planix, Inc. <woods%planix.com@localhost>     Avoncote Farms <woods%avoncote.ca@localhost>

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