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Message-ID: <397C2BE5.DA513A25@cygnus.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 13:43:33 +0200
From: Corinna Vinschen <vinschen AT cygnus DOT com>
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To: cygdev <cygwin-developers AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>,
        cygpatch <cygwin-patches AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
Subject: [PATCH]: New implementation for /dev/[u]random
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Hi all,

I have checked in a patch which changes the implementation
of /dev/random and /dev/urandom as follows:

- If initialization of the system crypto provider or retrieving
  the entropy source fails, reading from /dev/random fails as well.

- If that happens when using /dev/urandom, a pseudo random number
  generator (the same as used in DJGPP) is used as a fallback
  entropy source.

- In either case it's now possible to thrill the entropy source
  (system _and_ pseudo) by writing to the device.

The difference in handling /dev/random in contrast to /dev/urandom
is reasoned by it's purpose as a source for "very high quality 
randomness" as it's described in the Linux man page random(4)
while /dev/urandom is explicitly allowed to use a substitute.

For clearness: `sshd' uses /dev/urandom so it should work now under
any circumstances.

Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen
Cygwin Developer
Cygnus Solutions, a Red Hat company