/dev/random, /dev/urandom

DISCUSSION Jamie Risk 2 participants 2 messages Jan 8, 2003

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Jamie Risk

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2003-01-08 20:27 UTC #0 lore raw

I'm compiling OpenSSH, and to access /dev/random, and /dev/urandom, the configure script needs to be run as root.

What sort of trauma am I in for if I make those device permissions read accessible by everyone?

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Ray Olszewski

2003-01-08 21:22 UTC #1 lore raw

Quoted 5 lines · Jamie Risk

I'm compiling OpenSSH, and to access /dev/random, and /dev/urandom, the configure script needs to be run as root.
What sort of trauma am I in for if I make those device permissions read accessible by everyone?

Nothing serious that I can think of (though I suppose a malicious user might "use up" the system's entropy). The man page for "random" recommends mode 644 for both devices. Standard Debian installs make them world readable.

--
-------------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"--------
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, California, USA [email protected]
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