Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: OS snobbery... (was Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH)
From: Lars Hecking <lhecking () NMRC IE>
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 19:45:09 +0000
Someone else stated elsewhere in this thread that NetBSD (one of the platforms used for FreSSH development, coincidentally) is an example of a current operating system without a /dev/random. That's actually false, and in point of fact, with the quick application of a Sun-provided patch you can even have a /dev/random on Solaris.
You are correct about NetBSD, but not Solaris. The random device in SUNWski is part of the web server package in Solaris Server, but that package was dropped in Solaris 8 in favour of Apache. Also, it is not a "real", character device, it is a pipe. This does seem to make a difference for some applications. The only "real" random device for Solaris (2.5.1 through 8) is Andi Maier's at http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/~andi/. While it seems to work nicely, I am not aware that people have actually tested the quality of this PRNG.
Current thread:
- Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH Charles M. Hannum (Feb 13)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH tls (Feb 14)
- OS snobbery... (was Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH) Valdis Kletnieks (Feb 15)
- Re: OS snobbery... (was Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH) Thor Lancelot Simon (Feb 15)
- Re: OS snobbery... (was Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH) Lars Hecking (Feb 15)
- OS snobbery... (was Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH) Valdis Kletnieks (Feb 15)
- Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH Damien Miller (Feb 15)
- Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH Andrew Brown (Feb 15)
- Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH Joe Laffey (Feb 15)
- Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH Ulf Moeller (Feb 15)
- Re: Bad PRNGs revisted in FreSSH Thor Lancelot Simon (Feb 15)