entropy injection

[ link: entropy-injection-driver | tags: linux kernel code | updated: Tue, 16 May 2006 09:56:40 ]

I was installing openswan on my sbc router box. The sbc doesn't have much hardware on it, and what it does have did not contribute to the entropy pool.

I have a few boxes around with relatively good entropy (keyboard/mouse input), but there was no way to pass that entropy to the router for RSA key generation. I had to write some code to fix it. Be warned, it's pretty EVIL...

UPDATE: see below about rng-tools.

I started by reading the code of the random driver. It would seem that there was no easy way to inject entropy into the driver. There are two interfaces to do so, on an irq number, and for block devices. The first interface seems to only be available to code that is compiled into the kernel as rand_initialize_irq() and add_interrupt_randomness() are not exported symbols.

That leaves teh block device entropy generation scheme. There is a little problem here too. While add_disk_randomness() is exported to modules, rand_initialize_disk() is not. The initialize function must be called the first time to setup a randomness state pointer in the struct gendisk object.

So had to copy some of that out. The code is available here: entinj.c Makefile

After building it, you should insmod the module and run:

    ssh random-system cat /dev/random > /dev/entinj

WARNING: It works for me, it may not work for you. I have not ran any random number validation tests, and I have not look at the code in enough detail to make sure that the random numbers are good.

What I should do some day is actually get randomness of the Geode's GPIO pins and connect it to something that can generate random bits the correct way.

UPDATE: I have since learned about rng-tools package.

    apt-get install rng-tools pv
    ssh random-system cat /dev/random | pv -Wrb | rngd -f -r /dev/stdin

Which will read the randomness off one system, and then inject it into the local entropy pool (pv will just show the rate of randomness data being transfered through the pipe).

Bart's Blog

/entropy-injection-driver

About

I am an embedded Linux software developer and consultant operating under Jukie Networks Inc in Ottawa, Canada.

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Bart Trojanowski
http://www.jukie.net/~bart
bart@jukie.net