diff options
| author | Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu> | 2012-07-05 10:35:23 -0400 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> | 2012-08-10 00:24:46 +0100 |
| commit | 7f5d5266f8a1f7f54707c15e028f220d329726f4 (patch) | |
| tree | c171b6c421218935a60b0357862df84186432f37 /include | |
| parent | 060bc1d0cb527cf8b77f049ff6a595ddb68a41c8 (diff) | |
random: add new get_random_bytes_arch() function
commit c2557a303ab6712bb6e09447df828c557c710ac9 upstream.
Create a new function, get_random_bytes_arch() which will use the
architecture-specific hardware random number generator if it is
present. Change get_random_bytes() to not use the HW RNG, even if it
is avaiable.
The reason for this is that the hw random number generator is fast (if
it is present), but it requires that we trust the hardware
manufacturer to have not put in a back door. (For example, an
increasing counter encrypted by an AES key known to the NSA.)
It's unlikely that Intel (for example) was paid off by the US
Government to do this, but it's impossible for them to prove otherwise
Diffstat (limited to 'include')
| -rw-r--r-- | include/linux/random.h | 1 |
1 files changed, 1 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/include/linux/random.h b/include/linux/random.h index e14b4387354..29e217a7e6d 100644 --- a/include/linux/random.h +++ b/include/linux/random.h @@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ extern void add_input_randomness(unsigned int type, unsigned int code, extern void add_interrupt_randomness(int irq, int irq_flags); extern void get_random_bytes(void *buf, int nbytes); +extern void get_random_bytes_arch(void *buf, int nbytes); void generate_random_uuid(unsigned char uuid_out[16]); #ifndef MODULE |