Bret Hughes wrote:
> In tracking down a problem building freeswan I got this
> response from a guy on the ipsec list. This is on the new
> kernel this list was so kind in helping me get going. It
> was built from the 2.2.16-3 SRPM and is running on a compaq
> 3000 with dual 333MHz PIIs.
>
> I never knew I had to be worried about enough randomness.
> What the heck is going on? cat /dev/random spits out a
> bunch of garbage that sure looks random to me. I am in WAY
> over my head here. Any ideas?
>
> Here is the response I got. If there is not enough context
> let me know and I can post my original message.
>
> On Sun, 8 Oct 2000, Bret Hughes wrote:
> > Is there something I did wrong? ...
>
> Doesn't look like it...
>
> > 5128 pts/1 S 0:00 |
> > | \_ ./ranbits 256
>
> This is the interesting one -- ranbits is sitting there
> doing nothing.
> *That* means that for some reason, your system has very
> little randomness
> available in /dev/random. Ranbits is hung, waiting for some
> to show up
> so it can use it to generate a key.
>
> The quick workaround is to go to another window, and do some
> things that
> produce randomness -- type on the keyboard, move the mouse,
> cause some
> disk activity.
>
> A more fundamental question is *why* there's no randomness
> on that
> machine. That's an unusual problem, one we have no great
> insight into...
> but it should be tracked down and fixed, because at least a
> little bit of
> system randomness is important to later operation as well as
> the initial
> key generation.
A little more info-
/dev/random only uses keyboard and mouse interupts as inputs
into the entropy pool. on a sever with noone on the console
not much randomness there. Does anyone have a solution for
adding randomness to the pool that is secure? It seems that
there is a pretty big concern in the security community about
adding stuff that can be monitored remotely and used to
calc(guess?) the random bits used to calculate the keys.
I am continuing to look and learn but any pointers are
appreciated.
Bret
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