Re: GRUB and network (was Re: GRUB and Google Summer of Code)

[Isaac Dupree]

On 04/01/10 16:59, Vladimir 'φ-coder/phcoder' Serbinenko wrote:
> > There is already some crypto imported for password support so adding
> > enough to have SSL would hopefully not be too difficult.
> Not true. Although we have ciphers and hashes we don't have either
> asymetric algorithms or random generator. The first is easy to import
> but generating random numbers involves gathering entropy which is
> cornerstone of network cryptography. Without a good random number
> generator most SSL algorithms will only make the user happier without
> adding any security against attacker.

Is it reasonable to generate some random data during grub-install, and 
write it to the disk, where GRUB will then use it?  Maybe in combination 
with real-time clock, this can be good enough initial entropy? (But I 
have not consulted with security research--this is just a guess.)

-Isaac