Messages in this thread | | | From | Robert Love <> | Date | 21 Aug 2001 17:57:15 -0400 |
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On Tue, 2001-08-21 at 17:50, Robert Love wrote: ><snip> > > In theory, we dont need both SHA-1 hash and the entropy count. They > exist to pacify a theoretical weakness in each. > > Now, my net device patch should only be enabled in situations where both > you trust SHA-1 (and I think most do) and you trust that reading net > devices yields the full amount of entropy.
'lil typo on my part. actually, if you trust SHA-1, it does not matter if your net devices give zero entropy, because the SHA-1 hash of the read from /dev/random is still unpredictable.
the problem is if you both _dont_ trust SHA-1 and _fear_ there is less-than-estimated entropy from net devices on your network.
per Alex Bligh's suggestion, the Configure wording of the next patch will explain this.
-- Robert M. Love rml at ufl.edu rml at tech9.net
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