Re: [PATCH v1 1/2] random-bits: Factor out entropy generating function

["Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@zx2c4.com>]

Hi Noah,

On Mon, Apr 4, 2022 at 6:51 PM Noah Goldstein <goldstein.w.n@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Apr 4, 2022 at 10:00 AM Florian Weimer via Libc-alpha
> <libc-alpha@sourceware.org> wrote:
> >
> > * Jason A. Donenfeld via Libc-alpha:
> >
> > > _However_, based on what people have said in this thread, this all
> > > seems highly unnecessary, since you just need some boring
> > > statistically uniform randomness without any crypto or security
> > > requirements of any kind, and it simply needs to be fast and dumb. If
> > > that's the wrong set of requirements for this problem (I still have no
> > > idea what the bigger picture here is), please pipe up.
> >
> > If we can make a cryptographically secure generator fast enough, it
> > would relieve programmers of the need to choose between that and another
> > generator that just gives some random-looking bits fast.  If programmers
> > don't have to make a choice, they can't choose incorrectly (introducing
> > performance bugs or security bugs).
>
> It sounds like you're talking about creating a user facing API. Since
> random_bits
> is internal do we really need so much ease of use at the cost of performance?

Right, my thoughts exactly. If you just need some statistically
uniform bytes for whatever it is whomever told me above something
about threading something about no security something about really
doesn't matter, then I fail to see why https://א.cc/xrAIhCvy/c is
insufficient, and I also don't know why this thread is chasing its
tail about rdtsc.

I'd appreciate it if somebody in a leadership position could let me
know what is asked of me here, since somebody CC'd me into this
thread. I've already made two RNGs here for various spitballed
objectives. I'd like to refrain from spending time on a third until
there's some clarity on what it is you all want. Probably it makes
sense for me to leave this thread alone for a bit while you guys work
that out.

Jason