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Linux RNG gets a major improvement

submitted by v0atmage to Linux 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 11:20:59 ago (+8/-0)     (slashdot.org)

https://slashdot.org/story/397665



20 comments block


[ - ] deleted 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 11:37:38 ago (+1/-0)

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[ - ] v0atmage [op] 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 20:17:24 ago (+1/-0)

If you're serious, what are you trying to model with MCMC?

[ - ] deleted 0 points 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 22:14:06 ago (+0/-0)

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[ - ] v0atmage [op] 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 22:50:19 ago (+1/-0)

What do you think of the big Google database

You mean bigtable? Never used it, but tried most amazon equivalents (dynamo, redshift, athena, documetdb, s3) as well as cassandra+spark. I thought cassandra was really annoying to optimize queries for. I liked how seemless documentdb was to use with json payloads. Dynamo is probaby closest to bigtable and I found it easy enough to use but wish it was schemaless.

Side note: s3 is surprisingly well suited as a key value store if you front cache it.

and simulation system?

Haven't heard of google's simulation system- got a link? I really like reinforcement learning so maybe it's a good platform to do that over?

Have you read "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars"?

Haven't read it but open to doing so.

[ - ] deleted 0 points 3.1 yearsMar 21, 2022 12:54:21 ago (+0/-0)

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[ - ] SithEmpire 2 points 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 12:02:17 ago (+2/-0)

Have to dig a bit to discover the actual underlying reason why the unified random/urandom can be both secure and non-blocking, turns out to be good old Torvalds:

This is made possible thanks to a mechanism Linus added in 5.4, in random: try to actively add entropy rather than passively wait for it, in which the RNG can seed itself using cycle counter jitter in a second or so if it hasn’t already been seeded by other entropy sources

They're calling it the "Linus Jitter Dance".

He cucked a bit, but he's still a clever dude.

[ - ] v0atmage [op] 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 13:28:38 ago (+1/-0)

The cycle count jitter might not be a good source of entropy for all types of devices though.

[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 13:40:26 ago (+1/-0)

Doesn't most hardware have a random number generator now? I guess I understand the desire for a generic implementation, but for anything important I'd want true entropy.

I guess what I'm saying is if you're relying on the pseudo generator then fuck it you don't really care

[ - ] SithEmpire 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 14:04:52 ago (+1/-0)

Doesn't most hardware have a random number generator now?

Not a hardware RNG, no - if you want true hardware entropy then you need something like radioactive decay, same as with a high-precision time source. Most computers don't have that and must rely on random events occurring (such as network packets), which blocks /dev/random if they stop occurring, hence /dev/urandom for non-blocking PRNG.

The point of this development is that clock jitter always occurs over time, so adding that as an entropy source means that /dev/random is always fed, hence using that for everything. Technically it can still block, though the jitter entropy means it can no longer block forever (or more than a moment, in practice).

[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 0 points 3.1 yearsMar 21, 2022 19:26:05 ago (+0/-0)

So I found one on Intel that I think is saying it's based on a true RNG (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/guide/intel-digital-random-number-generator-drng-software-implementation-guide.html) and another on Snapdragon (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=snapdragon+hardware+rng&t=brave&ia=web). Both of these use hardware entropy.

"most" may be an exaggeration, but I'm pretty used to seeing them on SoCs.

[ - ] SithEmpire 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 13:55:48 ago (+1/-0)

Good point, a very stable real-time device may need some other jittery source. If a stable device can always measure jitter with better precision then I would design the seed process to adapt to that, so it always has jitter data available at the same magnitude relative to its clock stability.

[ - ] RedBarchetta 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 12:32:11 ago (+1/-0)

The demand for linux will be greater and greater as both apple and windows go to a much more dystopian OS. There are work-arounds but it needs to be packaged for the mass users to adopt it.

[ - ] Broc_Liath 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 12:55:12 ago (+1/-0)

On the other hand, if they go full on "you'll own nothing and you'll be happy," then I doubt people will be allowed to choose linux.

[ - ] RobertJHarsh 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 14:24:07 ago (+1/-0)

I haven't been on trashdot for awhile.

[ - ] JustALover 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 15:20:31 ago (+1/-0)

I had no idea they still existed. I stopped caring about that politically correct shithole after I figured out a corporation was behind it, and not a bunch of nerds that wanted to discuss tech.

[ - ] RobertJHarsh 0 points 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 18:52:29 ago (+0/-0)

It started out that way but the guy who ran it went hard core leftist and he probably pioneered shadow banning and cancelling before it was a thing. I forget the faggot's name and I really can't be bothered to find it. There is porn to look at.

[ - ] v0atmage [op] 0 points 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 16:41:26 ago (+0/-0)

I went with cuckdot instead of the direct link because multiple sources were cited by the cuckdot poster.

[ - ] deleted 1 point 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 17:49:41 ago (+1/-0)

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[ - ] v0atmage [op] 0 points 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 20:16:42 ago (+0/-0)

Is it randomly itchy then?

[ - ] deleted 0 points 3.1 yearsMar 20, 2022 20:29:30 ago (+0/-0)

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