[PATCH v3 00/11] rename random32 to prandom and introduce prandom_bytes()

Andrew Morton akpm at linux-foundation.org
Tue Nov 13 14:55:57 EST 2012


On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 22:36:59 +0900
Akinobu Mita <akinobu.mita at gmail.com> wrote:

> This patchset introduces new functions into random32 library for
> getting the requested number of pseudo-random bytes.
> 
> Before introducing these new functions into random32 library,
> rename all random32 functions to have 'prandom_' prefix.  As a result
> the function prototypes are as follows:
> 
> void prandom_seed(u32 seed);	/* rename from srandom32() */
> u32 prandom_u32(void);		/* rename from random32() */
> void prandom_bytes(void *buf, int nbytes);
> 
> void prandom_seed_state(struct rnd_state *state, u64 seed);
> 				/* rename from prandom32_seed() */
> u32 prandom_u32_state(struct rnd_state *state);
> 				/* rename from prandom32() */
> void prandom_bytes_state(struct rnd_state *state, void *buf, int nbytes);
> 
> The purpose of this renaming is to prevent some kernel developers
> from assuming that prandom32() and random32() might imply that only
> prandom32() was the one using a pseudo-random number generator by
> prandom32's "p", and the result may be a very embarassing security
> exposure.  This concern was expressed by Theodore Ts'o.

There were a large number of rejects in MTD code, due to pending
changes in linux-next.  It's all quite mechanical stuff which I
fixed up.  Please check the result.




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