Random source seeding and /etc/rc.d/sshd host key generation

[Mark Murray]

Brooks Davis writes:
> > I'm curious if checking the seeded sysctl against "" is intentional;
> > it seems $seeded will always be non-null.  Since user_reseed only
> > gets called if the host keys don't exist it probably won't be much
> > of an issue in practice, but it seems random junk will be requested
> > on the first boot even if the entropy source is already seeded.
> 
> I believe the goal of the script is to not trust the system entropy this
> time (since it's almost certainly junk.)  I think the check is just to
> avoid this code if the sysctl doesn't exist.

Close. Not all RNG's use the Yarrow-based generator. This is a test for
the presence of the Yarrow PRNG.

M
--
Mark Murray
iumop ap!sdn w,I idlaH