Entropy Problems For Linux In the Cloud

CalTrumpet writes "Our research group recently spoke at Black Hat USA on the topic of cloud computing security. One of the interesting outcomes of our research was the discovery that the combination of virtualization technologies and public system images results in a problem for random number generation on guest operating systems. This is especially true for Linux, since its PRNG uses only a small set of entropy-gathering events, and virtual Linux images often generate SSH host keys within seconds of their initial boot. The slides are available; the PRNG vulnerability material begins at slide 63."

Comments

Re:Getting creative

[Brian Gordon]

I think of some primitive post-human civilization struggling to industrialize amid the ruins of the heat-dead universe.

There's little solid matter left. Nobody really knows why; the legends tell of ancient, sprawling empires releasing great monsters that consume worlds and deliver energy to fuel their eons-old wars in the cold between the stars. Several human colonies survived the Last Scourge. One even knew something of their people's history. This colony of merchant-scholars thrived in an old space-borne city drifting about a great lightyears-long dust cloud inexplicably left untouched by the wars. The city was old, very old, built by a generation of master engineers who etched their likenesses in the great canvases of the city's impervious white construction. Quiet machinery lurked untouched in the mysterious depths of the undercity, seen only by outcasts wandering alone through those vast echoing chambers.

The city provided everything the civilization needed. Somehow (so much seemed like magic to them that even the usually-curious humans grew bored of speculation) their reservoirs filled with water, their air recycled, and their waste disappeared down bottomless shafts. All of their needs were filled, but they craved expansion and exploration. They were able to harvest some limited chemical energy from the food supplied by the city, and build using scrap. Still, entropy was a problem in the dust cloud of Linux. ....