Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 29 Oct 2001 10:58:28 -0600 (CST) | From | Oliver Xymoron <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] random.c bugfix |
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On Mon, 29 Oct 2001, Horst von Brand wrote:
> Andreas Dilger <adilger@turbolabs.com> said: > > [...] > > > (*) I don't know enough about the hash functions to know how to add a > > few odd bytes into the store in a useful and safe way. We don't > > really want to discard them either - think if a user-space random > > daemon on an otherwise entropy-free system only writes one byte at > > a time... > > I'm no expert either, but padding with anything (zeroes?) to get the right > length should be safe, no?
No. A 4-byte accumulator is the right answer. We have to be careful here though - the actual entropy might be in the partial words, we have to account for it conservatively.
-- "Love the dolphins," she advised him. "Write by W.A.S.T.E.."
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