c849485d90
The goal of saving entropy in Fortuna is two-fold: (1) to provide early availability of the random device (unblocking) on next boot; and (2), to have known, high-quality entropy available for that initial seed. We know it is high quality because it's output taken from Fortuna. The FS&K paper makes it clear that Fortuna unblocks when enough bits have been input that the output //may// be safely seeded. But they emphasize that the quality of various entropy sources is unknown, and a saved entropy file is essential for both availability and ensuring initial unpredictability. In FreeBSD we persist entropy using two mechanisms: 1. The /etc/rc.d/random shutdown() function, which is used for ordinary shutdowns and reboots; and, 2. A cron job that runs every dozen minutes or so to persist new entropy, in case the system suffers from power loss or a crash (bypassing the ordinary shutdown path). Filesystems are free to cache dirty data indefinitely, with arbitrary flush policy. Fsync must be used to ensure the data is persisted, especially for the cron job save-entropy, whose entire goal is power loss and crash safe entropy persistence. Ordinary shutdown may not need the fsync because unmount should flush out the dirty entropy file shortly afterwards. But it is always possible power loss or crash occurs during the short window after rc.d/random shutdown runs and before the filesystem is unmounted, so the additional fsync there seems harmless. PR: 230876 Reviewed by: delphij, markj, markm Approved by: secteam (delphij) Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D19742
FreeBSD Source:
This is the top level of the FreeBSD source directory. This file
was last revised on:
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms. A large community has continually developed it for more than thirty years. Its advanced networking, security, and storage features have made FreeBSD the platform of choice for many of the busiest web sites and most pervasive embedded networking and storage devices.
For copyright information, please see the file COPYRIGHT in this directory. Additional copyright information also exists for some sources in this tree - please see the specific source directories for more information.
The Makefile in this directory supports a number of targets for building components (or all) of the FreeBSD source tree. See build(7), config(8), https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/makeworld.html, and https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig.html for more information, including setting make(1) variables.
Source Roadmap:
bin System/user commands.
cddl Various commands and libraries under the Common Development
and Distribution License.
contrib Packages contributed by 3rd parties.
crypto Cryptography stuff (see crypto/README).
etc Template files for /etc.
gnu Various commands and libraries under the GNU Public License.
Please see gnu/COPYING* for more information.
include System include files.
kerberos5 Kerberos5 (Heimdal) package.
lib System libraries.
libexec System daemons.
release Release building Makefile & associated tools.
rescue Build system for statically linked /rescue utilities.
sbin System commands.
secure Cryptographic libraries and commands.
share Shared resources.
stand Boot loader sources.
sys Kernel sources.
sys/<arch>/conf Kernel configuration files. GENERIC is the configuration
used in release builds. NOTES contains documentation of
all possible entries.
tests Regression tests which can be run by Kyua. See tests/README
for additional information.
tools Utilities for regression testing and miscellaneous tasks.
usr.bin User commands.
usr.sbin System administration commands.
For information on synchronizing your source tree with one or more of the FreeBSD Project's development branches, please see:
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html