X-Git-Url: http://andersk.mit.edu/gitweb/openssh.git/blobdiff_plain/48e7916f513cb6fa03b5997ce57646b7b9a631da..ccd01778c21e2fc83d9b0da282862828d4832757:/WARNING.RNG

diff --git a/WARNING.RNG b/WARNING.RNG
index 5f129f40..d876c887 100644
--- a/WARNING.RNG
+++ b/WARNING.RNG
@@ -12,24 +12,28 @@ A particularly pernicious problem arises with DSA keys (used by the
 ssh2 protocol). Performing a DSA signature (which is required for
 authentication), entails the use of a 160 bit random number.  If an
 attacker can predict this number, then they can deduce your *private*
-key and impersonate you.
+key and impersonate you or your hosts.
 
 If you are using the builtin random number support (configure will
-tell you if this is the case), then read this document in its entirety
-and consider disabling ssh2 support (by adding "Protocol 1" to
-sshd_config and ssh_config).
+tell you if this is the case), then read this document in its entirety.
+Alternately, you can use Lutz Jaenicke's PRNGd - a small daemon which
+collects random numbers and makes them available by a socket.
 
 Please also request that your OS vendor provides a kernel-based random
 number collector (/dev/random) in future versions of your operating
-systems.
+systems by default.
 
 On to the description...
 
 The portable OpenSSH contains random number collection support for
 systems which lack a kernel entropy pool (/dev/random).
 
-This collector operates by executing the programs listed in
-($etcdir)/ssh_prng_cmds, reading their output and adding it to the
+This collector (as of 3.1 and beyond) comes as an external application
+that allows the local admin to decide on how to implement entropy
+collection.
+
+The default entropy collector operates by executing the programs listed
+in ($etcdir)/ssh_prng_cmds, reading their output and adding it to the
 PRNG supplied by OpenSSL (which is hash-based). It also stirs in the
 output of several system calls and timings from the execution of the
 programs that it runs.
@@ -40,24 +44,23 @@ the specified program.
 
 The random number code will also read and save a seed file to
 ~/.ssh/prng_seed. This contents of this file are added to the random
-number generator at startup.
+number generator at startup. The goal here is to maintain as much
+randomness between sessions as possible.
 
-This approach presents two problems:
+The default entropy collection code has two main problems:
 
 1. It is slow.
 
-Executing each program in the list can take a large amount of time,   
-especially on slower machines. Additionally some program can take a   
-disproportionate time to execute.                                     
+Executing each program in the list can take a large amount of time,
+especially on slower machines. Additionally some program can take a
+disproportionate time to execute.
 
-This can be tuned by the administrator. To debug the entropy
-collection is great detail, turn on full debugging ("ssh -v -v -v" or
-"sshd -d -d -d"). This will list each program as it is executed, how
-long it took to execute, its exit status and whether and how much data
-it generated. You can the find the culprit programs which are causing
-the real slow-downs.
+Tuning the random helper can be done by running ./ssh-random-helper in
+very verbose mode ("-vvv") and identifying the commands that are taking
+excessive amounts of time or hanging altogher.  Any problem commands can
+be modified or removed from ssh_prng_cmds.
 
-The entropy collector will timeout programs which take too long
+The default entropy collector will timeout programs which take too long
 to execute, the actual timeout used can be adjusted with the
 --with-entropy-timeout configure option. OpenSSH will not try to
 re-execute programs which have not been found, have had a non-zero
@@ -78,3 +81,15 @@ up and various other factors.
 To make matters even more complex, some of the commands are reporting
 largely the same data as other commands (eg. the various "ps" calls).
 
+
+How to avoid the default entropy code?
+
+The best way is to read the OpenSSL documentation and recompile OpenSSL
+to use prngd or egd.  Some platforms (like earily solaris) have 3rd
+party /dev/random devices that can be also used for this task.
+
+If you are forced to use ssh-rand-helper consider still downloading
+prngd/egd and configure OpenSSH using --with-prngd-port=xx or
+--with-prngd-socket=xx (refer to INSTALL for more information).
+
+$Id$