Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM Flag to forcedeth

From: David Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:15:01 -0700 (PDT)

From: Ben Hutchings <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2010 02:09:24 +0100

> Patrick Simmons wrote:
>> This patch adds the IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM flag to the forcedeth driver, 
>> allowing the interrupt timing for forcedeth to be used for entropy 
>> generation.  This should help /dev/random generate more secure random 
>> numbers on machines using this driver.
> [...]
> 
> We don't enable this for network drivers any more because:
> 
> 1. At high packet rates, interrupt moderation makes interrupts very
> regular.
> 2. At low packet rates, a malicious sender can control the interrupt
> timing.

Agreed on all counts, I'm not applying this patch.