Re: OpenSSH, PRNGd, and ssh-rand-helper

From: Lutz Jaenicke (jaenicke@iee.TU-Berlin.DE)
Date: 01/05/03 

From: Lutz Jaenicke <jaenicke@iee.TU-Berlin.DE>
Date: 5 Jan 2003 17:34:48 GMT

In article <9d0b79b2.0301021531.64303618@posting.google.com>, Robert Reiter wrote:
> In case of building/installing OpenSSH release 3.5p1 on a UNIX
> machine/operating system that lacks any kernel-based random device
> (e.g., /dev/random, /dev/urandom) but does have Lutz Janicke's Pseudo
> Random Number Generator Daemon (PRNGD) installed and running (e.g., on
> the UNIX socket /var/run/egd-pool), what is the role and purpose of
> OpenSSH's ssh-rand-helper program?

If you have the choice: update to OpenSSL 0.9.7. It will automatically
query EGD like processes at predefined locations (one of which is
/var/run/egd-pool). If OpenSSH is recompiled, it will recognize that
OpenSSL is obtaining the seed itself.

Best regards,
        Lutz

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