projects/linux·commit cf833d0b

random: Use arch_get_random_int instead of cycle counter if avail

cf833d0b · Linus Torvalds <[email protected]> · 2011-12-22 11:36:22 -08:00

We still don't use rdrand in /dev/random, which just seems stupid. We
accept the *cycle*counter* as a random input, but we don't accept
rdrand? That's just broken.

Sure, people can do things in user space (write to /dev/random, use
rdrand in addition to /dev/random themselves etc etc), but that
*still* seems to be a particularly stupid reason for saying "we
shouldn't bother to try to do better in /dev/random".

And even if somebody really doesn't trust rdrand as a source of random
bytes, it seems singularly stupid to trust the cycle counter *more*.

So I'd suggest the attached patch. I'm not going to even bother
arguing that we should add more bits to the entropy estimate, because
that's not the point - I don't care if /dev/random fills up slowly or
not, I think it's just stupid to not use the bits we can get from
rdrand and mix them into the strong randomness pool.

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/CA%2B55aFwn59N1=m651QAyTy-1gO1noGbK18zwKDwvwqnravA84A@mail.gmail.com
Acked-by: "David S. Miller" <[email protected]>
Acked-by: "Theodore Ts'o" <[email protected]>
Acked-by: Herbert Xu <[email protected]>
Cc: Matt Mackall <[email protected]>
Cc: Tony Luck <[email protected]>
Cc: Eric Dumazet <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin <[email protected]>
Commit
cf833d0b9937874b50ef2867c4e8badfd64948ce
Parents
5f0a6e2d

Changes

1 files changed · +6 −2

FileStatusAddDelContent
drivers/char/random.cmodified+6−2View file

drivers/char/random.c

View file
diff --git a/drivers/char/random.c b/drivers/char/random.c
index 6035ab8..85da874 100644
--- a/drivers/char/random.c
+++ b/drivers/char/random.c
@@ -624,8 +624,8 @@ static struct timer_rand_state input_timer_state;
static void add_timer_randomness(struct timer_rand_state *state, unsigned num)
{
struct {
- cycles_t cycles;
long jiffies;
+ unsigned cycles;
unsigned num;
} sample;
long delta, delta2, delta3;
@@ -637,7 +637,11 @@ static void add_timer_randomness(struct timer_rand_state *state, unsigned num)
goto out;
sample.jiffies = jiffies;
- sample.cycles = get_cycles();
+
+ /* Use arch random value, fall back to cycles */
+ if (!arch_get_random_int(&sample.cycles))
+ sample.cycles = get_cycles();
+
sample.num = num;
mix_pool_bytes(&input_pool, &sample, sizeof(sample));