Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch
From: Jim Knoble <jmknoble () pobox com>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 17:25:42 -0500
Circa 2003-12-04 12:42:26 -0500 dixit Adam Shostack: : On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 08:54:11AM +0100, Han Boetes wrote: : | I ported arc4random from OpenBSD to linux some time ago. All I had to : | do was to change the sysctl: : | : | http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanb/software/arc4random.tar.bz2 : : Can you explain why it's better than the kernel's randomness pool? The arc4random() function does not deplete the Linux kernel's entropy pool, as reading from /dev/random does. As long as arc4random() is properly seeded from /dev/random to begin with (and periodically stirred with more entropy from /dev/random), it's perfectly good unpredictable pseudorandom data, suitable for most anything except actually generating cryptographic keys. OpenBSD uses arc4random() as the basis for the mkstemp() function to generate unpredictable temporary filenames, for example. In sum, using a properly seeded arc4random() under Linux is similar to reading from /dev/urandom, but it uses the ARC4 algorithm to generate the pseudorandom data rather than the undocumented algorithm used by Linux's /dev/urandom. -- jim knoble | jmknoble () pobox com | http://www.pobox.com/~jmknoble/ (GnuPG fingerprint: 31C4:8AAC:F24E:A70C:4000::BBF4:289F:EAA8:1381:1491) ..................................................................... :"The methods now being used to merchandise the political candidate : : as though he were a deodorant positively guarantee the electorate : : against ever hearing the truth about anything." --Aldous Huxley : :...................................................................:
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Current thread:
- [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch William Robertson (Dec 01)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Stefan Esser (Dec 02)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch William Robertson (Dec 02)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Stefan Esser (Dec 03)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch William Robertson (Dec 03)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch William Robertson (Dec 02)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Stefan Esser (Dec 02)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Eugene Tsyrklevich (Dec 02)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch William Robertson (Dec 02)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Han Boetes (Dec 03)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Adam Shostack (Dec 04)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Jim Knoble (Dec 04)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch William Robertson (Dec 02)
- Message not available
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch William Robertson (Dec 04)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch xenophi1e (Dec 03)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Stefan Esser (Dec 04)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Troed SĂ„ngberg (Dec 04)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Stefan Esser (Dec 04)
- Re: [ANNOUNCE] glibc heap protection patch Marco Ivaldi (Dec 04)