Bug#808909: libbsd: Please improve getentropy(2) implementation

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

Source: libbsd
Source-Version: 0.8.1-1
Severity: wishlist
X-Debbugs-CC: debian-hurd@lists.debian.org

Hi!

Currently libbsd implements getentropy(2) using only a fallback, which
has the same problems as on old GNU/Linux and other Unix systems. Uses
file descriptors which are susceptible to limits or exhaustion (and
relies on /dev which might not be available on a chroot, but that
might be an unrealistic constraint on the Hurd).

I guess this could be implemented by using native Hurd interfaces, but
I've not thought if that would suffer from similar problems as the
above, and if we might need another interface implemented from the
Hurd side.

I'm not sure I'll have time soon to look into this, so if some Hurd
porter could take a stab at this that'd be highly appreciated. This
might also help when and if getentropy(2) gets added to glibc, which
AIUI was talked about some time ago.

Current implementation at
<http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libbsd/tree/src/getentropy_hurd.c>

Thanks,
Guillem