News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on OpenBSD Will Get Unique Kernels on Each Reboot. Parent comment

Re:OpenBSD Will Get Unique Kernels on Each Reboot by excaliboor on Thursday July 06, 2017 @04:53PM (#14713864)
> Many

^[which?] ^[citation needed]

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:OpenBSD Will Get Unique Kernels on Each Reboot by problems on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:27PM (#14714109)
On desktops, Intel Ivy Bridge and newer and everything AMD since June 2015.

On mobile, most mobile SoCs include security stuff, Qualcomm seems to have had them since at least the Snapdragon 805. See here for the addition of the RNG to the linux kernel in 2013: https://lwn.net/Articles/570158/

Even common embedded SoCs like those used in the ESP8266 include hardware RNGs.

Really, there's no excuse for not using it as at least one factor. If you're concerned about possible backdoors, xor it with your own CSPRNG in software like the Linux kernel does.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:OpenBSD Will Get Unique Kernels on Each Reboot by zurn on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @09:06AM (#14752144)
TPM has one too.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:OpenBSD Will Get Unique Kernels on Each Reboot by awordnot on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:00PM (#14713914)
Recent AMD and Intel systems with AES-NI provide a hardware RNG. Although as far as I was aware this is not used on OpenBSD for fear of hardware backdoors.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:OpenBSD Will Get Unique Kernels on Each Reboot by Someone on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:03PM (#14713941)
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RdRand and (same page) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RdRand#Reception for info on concerns about backdrops.
[ Parent | on HN ]