> Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com> writes:
>
- >> * Perhaps the /dev/*random reading should be separated into a separate
+ >> * Perhaps the /dev/?random reading should be separated into a separate
>> module? It might be useful outside of the gc layer too.
>
> Absolutely. I've been meaning to do that for months (for a "shuffle"
I'll write a separate module for that part.
I think we should even add a good PRNG that is re-seeded from
- /dev/*random frequently. GnuTLS can need a lot of random data on a
+ /dev/?random frequently. GnuTLS can need a lot of random data on a
big server, more than /dev/random can supply. And /dev/urandom might
- not be strong enough. Further, the security of /dev/*random can also
+ not be strong enough. Further, the security of /dev/?random can also
be questionable.
>> I'm also not sure about the names of those functions, they suggest
it isn't called too often. You can guess what the next value will be,
but it will always be different.
- The problem is that /dev/*random doesn't offer any kind of semantic
+ The problem is that /dev/?random doesn't offer any kind of semantic
guarantees. But applications need an API that make that promise.
I think we should do this in several steps:
- 1) Write a module that can read from /dev/*random.
+ 1) Write a module that can read from /dev/?random.
2) Add a module for a known-good PRNG suitable for random number
generation, that can be continuously re-seeded.