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 19:04:12 +0000 (12:04 -0700)
commit3e035335b0578f6a058aecaf817b462ec9773c24
treecfae4cf2737067cc7ef241bd9bd608814742cf64
parentebb6006e3be88bb15328887dec4a8c3b7c0138b6
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