From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
To: Lennart Poettering <mzxreary@0pointer.de>
Cc: "Alexander E. Patrakov" <patrakov@gmail.com>,
"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com>,
"Ahmed S. Darwish" <darwish.07@gmail.com>,
"Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>, Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>,
Matthew Garrett <mjg59@srcf.ucam.org>,
Vito Caputo <vcaputo@pengaru.com>,
Andreas Dilger <adilger.kernel@dilger.ca>,
Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>, Ray Strode <rstrode@redhat.com>,
William Jon McCann <mccann@jhu.edu>,
zhangjs <zachary@baishancloud.com>,
Ext4 Developers List <linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org>,
lkml <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Linux 5.3-rc8
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 08:58:56 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAHk-=widBVsz+JZYnkV8xvCt+XMzkO6Gz3KZQ_gULXpMpUZfMA@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20190927135708.GD11791@gardel-login>
On Fri, Sep 27, 2019 at 6:57 AM Lennart Poettering <mzxreary@0pointer.de> wrote:
>
> Doing the random seed in the boot loader is nice for two reasons:
>
> 1. It runs very very early, so that the OS can come up with fully
> initialized entropy right from the beginning.
Oh, that part I love.
But I don't believe in your second case:
> 2. The boot loader generally has found some disk to read the kernel from,
> i.e. has a place where stuff can be stored and which can be updated
> (most modern boot loaders can write to disk these days, and so can
> EFI). Thus, it can derive a new random seed from a stored seed on disk
> and pass it to the OS *AND* update it right away on disk ensuring that
> it is never reused again.
No. This is absolutely no different at all from user space doing it
early with a file.
All the same "golden image" issues exist, and in general the less the
boot loader writes to disk, the better.
Plus it doesn't actually work anyway in the one situation where people
_really_ want it - embedded devices, where the kernel image is quite
possibly in read-only flash that needs major setup for updates.
PLUS.
Your "it can update it right away on disk" is just crazy talk. With
WHAT? It has no randomness to play with, and it doesn't have time to
do jitter entropy stuff.
So all it can do is a really bad job at taking the previous random
seed, doing some transformation on it, and add a little bit of
whatever system randomness it can find. None of which is any better
than what the kernel can do.
End result: you'd need to have the kernel update whatever bootloader
data later on, and I'm not seeing that happening. Afaik the current
bootloader interface has no way to specify how to update it when you
actually have better randomness.
> NVRAM backing EFI vars sucks. Nothing you want to update on every
> cycle. It's OK to update during OS installation, but during every
> single boot? I'd rather not.
I do agree that EFI nvram isn't wonderful, but hopefully nonvolatile
storage is improving, and it's conceptually the right thing.
Linus
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-09-27 16:05 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 213+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-09-08 20:59 Linux 5.3-rc8 Linus Torvalds
2019-09-10 4:21 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-10 11:33 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-10 12:21 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-10 17:33 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-10 17:47 ` Reindl Harald
2019-09-10 18:21 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-11 16:07 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-11 16:45 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-11 17:00 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-11 17:36 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-12 3:44 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-12 8:25 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-12 11:34 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-12 11:58 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-14 12:25 ` [PATCH RFC] random: getrandom(2): don't block on non-initialized entropy pool Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-14 14:08 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-15 5:22 ` [PATCH RFC v2] random: optionally block in getrandom(2) when the CRNG is uninitialized Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-15 8:17 ` [PATCH RFC v3] random: getrandom(2): optionally block when " Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-15 8:59 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-15 9:30 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 10:02 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-15 10:40 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 10:55 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-15 11:17 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 17:32 ` [PATCH RFC v2] random: optionally block in getrandom(2) when the " Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 18:32 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 18:36 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 19:08 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 19:18 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 19:31 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 19:54 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 18:59 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 19:12 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-16 2:45 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-16 18:08 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-16 19:16 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-18 21:15 ` [PATCH RFC v4 0/1] random: WARN on large getrandom() waits and introduce getrandom2() Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-18 21:17 ` [PATCH RFC v4 1/1] " Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-18 23:57 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-19 14:34 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-19 15:20 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-19 15:50 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-20 13:13 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-19 20:04 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-19 20:45 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-19 21:47 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-19 22:23 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-19 23:44 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-20 13:16 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-23 11:55 ` David Laight
2019-09-20 13:08 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-20 13:46 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-20 14:33 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-20 16:29 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-20 17:52 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-20 18:09 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-20 18:16 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-20 19:12 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-20 19:51 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-20 20:11 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-20 20:17 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-20 20:51 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-20 22:44 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-20 23:30 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-21 3:05 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-21 6:07 ` Florian Weimer
2019-09-23 18:33 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-26 21:11 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-20 18:12 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-20 19:22 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-20 19:37 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-20 19:52 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-20 20:02 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-20 18:15 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-20 18:29 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-20 17:26 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-20 17:56 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-26 20:42 ` [PATCH v5 0/1] random: getrandom(2): warn on large CRNG waits, introduce new flags Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-26 20:44 ` [PATCH v5 1/1] " Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-26 21:39 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-09-28 9:30 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-20 0:51 ` [random] ec47a799bf: WARNING:at_drivers/char/random.c:#getrandom_wait kernel test robot
2019-09-14 15:02 ` Linux 5.3-rc8 Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-14 16:30 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-14 16:35 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-14 16:52 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-14 17:09 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-14 19:19 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 6:56 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-15 7:01 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 7:05 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-15 7:07 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 8:34 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-15 17:02 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 3:23 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-16 3:40 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 3:56 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 17:00 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-16 17:07 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-14 21:11 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-14 22:05 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-14 22:24 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-14 22:32 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 1:00 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-15 1:10 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 2:05 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-15 2:11 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-15 6:33 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 6:53 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-15 6:51 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-15 7:27 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-15 8:48 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-15 16:29 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 1:40 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-16 1:48 ` Vito Caputo
2019-09-16 2:49 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-16 4:29 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-16 5:02 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 6:12 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-16 16:17 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 17:21 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-16 17:44 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 17:55 ` Serge Belyshev
2019-09-16 19:08 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-16 23:02 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-16 23:05 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 23:11 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-16 23:13 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-16 23:15 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-16 23:18 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 23:29 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-17 1:05 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-17 1:23 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 1:41 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-17 1:46 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 5:24 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 7:33 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-17 8:35 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 8:44 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-17 12:11 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-17 12:30 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-17 12:46 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-17 12:47 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 16:08 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 16:23 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-17 16:34 ` Reindl Harald
2019-09-17 17:42 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 18:01 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-17 20:28 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-17 20:52 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-17 21:38 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-17 21:52 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 22:10 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-18 13:53 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-19 7:28 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-17 23:08 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-18 13:40 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 20:58 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-18 9:33 ` Rasmus Villemoes
2019-09-18 10:16 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-18 10:25 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-18 10:42 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-18 19:31 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-18 19:56 ` Eric W. Biederman
2019-09-18 20:13 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-18 20:15 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-18 20:26 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-18 22:12 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-27 13:57 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-27 15:58 ` Linus Torvalds [this message]
2019-09-29 9:05 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 13:11 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-17 13:37 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-17 15:57 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 16:21 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 17:13 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 17:29 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 20:42 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-18 13:38 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-18 13:59 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-18 14:50 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-17 20:36 ` Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-17 16:27 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-17 16:34 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 17:16 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 17:20 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 17:23 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 17:57 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 16:58 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-17 17:30 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 17:32 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-17 17:41 ` Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-17 17:28 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-17 0:03 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 0:40 ` Matthew Garrett
2019-09-17 7:15 ` a sane approach to random numbers (was: Re: Linux 5.3-rc8) Martin Steigerwald
2019-09-16 18:00 ` Linux 5.3-rc8 Alexander E. Patrakov
2019-09-16 19:53 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-17 15:32 ` Lennart Poettering
2019-09-16 3:31 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-23 20:49 ` chaos generating driver was " Pavel Machek
2019-09-14 9:25 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-14 16:27 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-11 21:41 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-11 22:37 ` Ahmed S. Darwish
2019-09-16 3:52 ` Herbert Xu
2019-09-16 4:21 ` Linus Torvalds
2019-09-16 4:53 ` Willy Tarreau
2019-09-10 11:56 ` Theodore Y. Ts'o
2019-09-16 10:33 ` Christoph Hellwig
2019-10-03 21:10 ` Jon Masters
2019-10-03 21:31 ` Jon Masters
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to='CAHk-=widBVsz+JZYnkV8xvCt+XMzkO6Gz3KZQ_gULXpMpUZfMA@mail.gmail.com' \
--to=torvalds@linux-foundation.org \
--cc=adilger.kernel@dilger.ca \
--cc=darwish.07@gmail.com \
--cc=ebiederm@xmission.com \
--cc=jack@suse.cz \
--cc=linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=mccann@jhu.edu \
--cc=mjg59@srcf.ucam.org \
--cc=mzxreary@0pointer.de \
--cc=patrakov@gmail.com \
--cc=rstrode@redhat.com \
--cc=tytso@mit.edu \
--cc=vcaputo@pengaru.com \
--cc=w@1wt.eu \
--cc=zachary@baishancloud.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).