random: create add_device_randomness() interface
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Wed, 4 Jul 2012 15:16:01 +0000 (11:16 -0400)
committerGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:10:27 +0000 (08:10 -0700)
commit1d0eb350ee278cb257178a14c4c9d965d7d2835e
tree16b4cc295085db157d441e2b08821f92d9161363
parente0604ba541f04a542ee9a7f6a468a60688ad8c72
random: create add_device_randomness() interface

commit a2080a67abe9e314f9e9c2cc3a4a176e8a8f8793 upstream.

Add a new interface, add_device_randomness() for adding data to the
random pool that is likely to differ between two devices (or possibly
even per boot).  This would be things like MAC addresses or serial
numbers, or the read-out of the RTC. This does *not* add any actual
entropy to the pool, but it initializes the pool to different values
for devices that might otherwise be identical and have very little
entropy available to them (particularly common in the embedded world).

[ Modified by tytso to mix in a timestamp, since there may be some
  variability caused by the time needed to detect/configure the hardware
  in question. ]

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
drivers/char/random.c
include/linux/random.h