

Random Number Bug in Debian Linux (2008) - pdknsk
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/05/random_number_b.html

======
alrs
Two obligatory links.

1\. Debian dev on the openssl mailing list if he can remove the code causing
errors in Valgrind: [http://marc.info/?l=openssl-
dev&m=114651085826293&w=2](http://marc.info/?l=openssl-
dev&m=114651085826293&w=2)

2\. Developer with a @openssl.org email address giving him the green light:
[http://marc.info/?l=openssl-
dev&m=114652287210110&w=2](http://marc.info/?l=openssl-
dev&m=114652287210110&w=2)

Source: [http://lwn.net/Articles/282038/](http://lwn.net/Articles/282038/)

~~~
kryptiskt
Nothing has ever quite degraded my opinion of the Debian project as much as
the fact that everybody is quoting that in order to shift blame instead of
them trying to debug their process for patching security-essential code.

~~~
DebianUser
The only thing that it means is that the security team does not fully
understand the code it maintain, and apparently the same can be said about the
openssl team. As a user myself, I don't understand that code, but I rely on
people who should. Perhaps it means that the Debian security team should get
more knowledgeable people onboard, but knowledge is also made of experience,
and requires time to build up. Hopefully this will become a valuable
experience for everyone, I know it has for me.

By the way, does anyone know of a certified SSL stack (a la compcert)?

------
reirob
Last sentence of the article:

"Random numbers are used everywhere in cryptography, for both short- and long-
term security. And, as we've seen here, security flaws in random number
generators are really easy to accidently create and really hard to discover
after the fact. Back when the NSA was routinely weakening commercial
cryptography, their favorite technique was reducing the entropy of the random
number generator."

Consider that the article is from 2008 and correlate it to the current
revelations about NSA.

------
fnordfnordfnord
I guess it is really hard to write a test suite that would catch these types
of weaknesses?

PS Just noticed this is from 2008 (whew, I was afraid it had happened again).

~~~
corresation
This is ancient news, and it seemed to be sufficiently explained as really
silly human error. However your comment reminded me of a Dilbert-

[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2001-10-25/](http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2001-10-25/)

~~~
exDM69
While we're talking comics, this xkcd comic was inspired by this particular
debian bug: [http://xkcd.com/221/](http://xkcd.com/221/)

As a more serious note, people who are not cryptographers should refrain from
touching crypto code, especially something as important as pseudo random
number generators. In addition, it's not a very good idea be doing significant
modifications "downstream" from the actual project.

------
mauchter
This article is five years old; it'd be nice to note that in the title.

------
buss
Note this is from 2008.

------
pdknsk
Read the last sentence.

