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Comment by boltzmann64 | Hacker News Reader

i remember some linux kernel dev got ousted by the community because he/she wanted to not implement a backdoor that would compromise the results of /dev/urandom.

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Who?

I have no idea about the claim of a backdoor. But here is the source:

Matt Mackall: "It's worth noting that the maintainer of record (me) for the Linux RNG quit the project about two years ago precisely because Linus decided to include a patch from Intel to allow their unauditable RdRand to bypass the entropy pool over my strenuous objections. "

https://cryptome.wikileaks.org/2013/07/intel-bed-nsa.htm?utm...

That doesn’t read like a backdoor or like the community pushing somebody out.

The fact that Intel Bull Mountain (code name for Secure Key Technology), and NSA's BULLRUN program share the name "bull" is a complete coincidence. I'm sure.

You know there are people who actually reason this way.

On many systems like Raspberry Pi the <v5.6 kernel /dev/random or /dev/urandom lacked sufficient entropy to properly deploy wifi hostapd WPA2/WPA3 services.

Instead, people used haveged to workaround the issue. Not a conspiracy by some dude, but rather just more budget hardware limitations.

Don't worry about it, there are lots of real dubious things people do already. =3

Did you mean to comment this somewhere else? It doesn't really seem connected to this comment branch.

No, the recollection of /dev/random having an issue was correct, but attributing it the some malicious dude is wrong.

I don't like piling on people that engage in good faith. Best regards =3

Nobody in this thread has attributed anything to "some malicious dude".

You don't recall asking boltzmann64 for any details akerl_ ?

Perhaps it is time to get outside for a walk to lower stress levels. =3

I think you've pretty significantly misread the thread.

You forgot: =3

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