Subject: Re: NFS file handles are guessable.
To: Luke Mewburn <lukem@connect.com.au>
From: Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
List: tech-security
Date: 03/07/1997 11:58:14
Luke Mewburn writes:
> 	* randomising st_gen at creation time (OpenBSD has
> 	  a random function based on arcfour available in the kernel.
> 	  This, and similar functionality may be useful.

rc4 is not necessarily a very good random number generator unless its
is very well seeded.

What we really desperately need is a /dev/random...

> 	* incorporating fsirand(8) into the source tree, and
> 	  similar functionality into newfs and/or fsck

fsirand should be incorporated into newfs as well as being standalone
-- merging newfs and fsirand once saved me vast amounts of time in a
high speed install system, since the disk only had to be grovelled
once and not twice.

Perry