1215
submitted 8 months ago by possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.ml
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] dan@upvote.au 5 points 8 months ago

OpenSSL did add to the entropy pool a bunch uninitialized memory and the PID.

Did they have a comment above the code explaining why it was doing it that way? If not, I'd blame OpenSSL for it.

The OpenSSL codebase has a bunch of issues, which is why somewhat-API-compatible forks like LibreSSL and BoringSSL exist.

[-] suy@programming.dev 1 points 8 months ago

I'd have to dig it, but I think it said that it added the PID and the uninitialized memory to add a bit more data to the entropy pool in a cheap way. I honestly don't get how that additional data can be helpful. To me it's the very opposite. The PID and the undefined memory are not as good quality as good randomness. So, even without Debian's intervention, it was a bad idea. The undefined memory triggered valgrind, and after Debian's patch, if it weren't because of the PID, all keys would have been reduced to 0 randomness, which would have probably raised the alarm much sooner.

this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
1215 points (99.2% liked)

Linux

48654 readers
454 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS