> Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 18:07:54 +0200 > From: Kurt Roeckx <k...@roeckx.be> > > On Sat, May 02, 2020 at 03:38:43PM +0000, Taylor R Campbell wrote: > > > Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 11:10:44 +0200 > > > From: Kurt Roeckx <k...@roeckx.be> > > > > > > I hink we've previously talked about it, and you said the OpenBSD > > > manpage doesn't mention anything related to it. But it's implied > > > behaviour for OpenBSD, they never had an interface where you can > > > get random numbers before it's properly seeded. > > > > I reviewed the OpenBSD implementation at > > > > https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/src/sys/dev/rnd.c?rev=1.204&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup > > > > and I see no evidence of blocking. Where does it block? > > It's my understanding that it never blocks because the bootloader > provides entropy. Be time time the first user can call genentropy, > it has already been seeded.
On NetBSD we try to do that where possible too, but in the real world it can't be 100% guaranteed to work on NetBSD or on OpenBSD -- for example, if you copy the same fresh OS image onto multiple machines (every machine might generate the same keys), then it won't work, or if your / is mounted on a read-only medium, then it won't work (boot again and you might get the same keys). If you're satisfied with what OpenBSD does here, then I think you should generally be satisfied with what NetBSD does too.
