Mailing-List:	contact cygwin-developers-help AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Subscribe:	<mailto:cygwin-developers-subscribe AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
List-Archive:	<http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin-developers/>
List-Post:	<mailto:cygwin-developers AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
List-Help:	<mailto:cygwin-developers-help AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>, <http://sources.redhat.com/ml/#faqs>
Sender:	cygwin-developers-owner AT sources DOT redhat DOT com
Delivered-To:	mailing list cygwin-developers AT sources DOT redhat DOT com
Message-ID:	<397C2BE5.DA513A25@cygnus.com>
Date:	Mon, 24 Jul 2000 13:43:33 +0200
From:	Corinna Vinschen <vinschen AT cygnus DOT com>
X-Mailer:	Mozilla 4.73 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.14-SMP i686)
X-Accept-Language:	de, en
MIME-Version:	1.0
To:	cygdev <cygwin-developers AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>,
	cygpatch <cygwin-patches AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
Subject:	[PATCH]: New implementation for /dev/[u]random

Hi all,

I have checked in a patch which changes the implementation
of /dev/random and /dev/urandom as follows:

- If initialization of the system crypto provider or retrieving
  the entropy source fails, reading from /dev/random fails as well.

- If that happens when using /dev/urandom, a pseudo random number
  generator (the same as used in DJGPP) is used as a fallback
  entropy source.

- In either case it's now possible to thrill the entropy source
  (system _and_ pseudo) by writing to the device.

The difference in handling /dev/random in contrast to /dev/urandom
is reasoned by it's purpose as a source for "very high quality 
randomness" as it's described in the Linux man page random(4)
while /dev/urandom is explicitly allowed to use a substitute.

For clearness: `sshd' uses /dev/urandom so it should work now under
any circumstances.

Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Developer
Cygnus Solutions, a Red Hat company

- Raw text -