"independently of ASLR, it would still be nice if the kernel provided a 'strong' but fast PRNG device that one could for example use to sanitize a harddrive at raw write speeds, something that isn't possible with /dev/urandom for example. if such a PRNG existed it could then of course be used for ASLR as well but ASLR itself can live with less (ditto for the SSP cookie by the way)."
http://lwn.net/Articles/334027/ So this is really an upstream Linux kernel request or, at the outside, a request to the kernel team to include an out-of-kernel patch. If such a PRNG existed it could be used for ASLR and SSP and for "(scientific) simulations, wiping the disk, stress tests on algorithms". The erandom device seems worthy of consideration (http://www.billauer.co.il/frandom.html). It seems to reach" harddrive raw write speeds" at 155MB/s (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1076959). The frandom/erandom code was rejected from the kernel in 2003 (http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0310.2/0015.html) but that was before ASLR and SSP became the default on GNU/Linux systems. Perhaps it's worth revisiting that debate. -- Rapid depletion of entropy pool https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/575669 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
