[rhelv6-list] Random seed on stateless system

[Andrew Ruch]

Thank you for the response.

It's a read-only /var as far as the hard drive is concerned. It works
by having a few files and directories bind mounted in memory using
/etc/sysconfig/readonly-root and /etc/rwtab. I already have a
stateless system up and working.

My concern was using the same random-seed for every boot. By using the
same random-seed, does this cause /dev/urandom to produce the same
sequence of random numbers, thus weakening the security posture? Is it
better to use the same random-seed or no random-seed at all?

Andrew

On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 3:12 AM, John Haxby <john.haxby at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 26 February 2015 at 20:31, Andrew Ruch <adruch2002 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> I have a question about how the handle the random-seed file on a
>> stateless system. I get RHEL6 installed and configured as desired and
>> then switch to a stateless system using /etc/sysconfig/readonly-root.
>> During the install process, /var/lib/random-seed is generated. This
>> file is also read and written to during startup/shutdown via
>> rc.sysinit and halt.
>>
>> However, once the system is stateless, this file can never be modified
>> again. Is it better for this file to exist on a stateless system and
>> every boot will feed /dev/urandom the same seed? Or should this file
>> be deleted so no seed exists?
>
>
>
> I'd be very surprised if a read-only /var worked.   All kinds of things
> expect to be able to write files there.   /var/lib is comparatively static,
> but not entirely static (/var/lib/random-seed is the obvious one).
>
> jch
>
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