mainlining shenanigans
78c768e619
Currently, we do the jitter dance if two consecutive reads to the cycle counter return different values. If they do, then we consider the cycle counter to be fast enough that one trip through the scheduler will yield one "bit" of credited entropy. If those two reads return the same value, then we assume the cycle counter is too slow to show meaningful differences. This methodology is flawed for a variety of reasons, one of which Eric posted a patch to fix in [1]. The issue that patch solves is that on a system with a slow counter, you might be [un]lucky and read the counter _just_ before it changes, so that the second cycle counter you read differs from the first, even though there's usually quite a large period of time in between the two. For example: | real time | cycle counter | | --------- | ------------- | | 3 | 5 | | 4 | 5 | | 5 | 5 | | 6 | 5 | | 7 | 5 | <--- a | 8 | 6 | <--- b | 9 | 6 | <--- c If we read the counter at (a) and compare it to (b), we might be fooled into thinking that it's a fast counter, when in reality it is not. The solution in [1] is to also compare counter (b) to counter (c), on the theory that if the counter is _actually_ slow, and (a)!=(b), then certainly (b)==(c). This helps solve this particular issue, in one sense, but in another sense, it mostly functions to disallow jitter entropy on these systems, rather than simply taking more samples in that case. Instead, this patch takes a different approach. Right now we assume that a difference in one set of consecutive samples means one "bit" of credited entropy per scheduler trip. We can extend this so that a difference in two sets of consecutive samples means one "bit" of credited entropy per /two/ scheduler trips, and three for three, and four for four. In other words, we can increase the amount of jitter "work" we require for each "bit", depending on how slow the cycle counter is. So this patch takes whole bunch of samples, sees how many of them are different, and divides to find the amount of work required per "bit", and also requires that at least some minimum of them are different in order to attempt any jitter entropy. Note that this approach is still far from perfect. It's not a real statistical estimate on how much these samples vary; it's not a real-time analysis of the relevant input data. That remains a project for another time. However, it makes the same (partly flawed) assumptions as the code that's there now, so it's probably not worse than the status quo, and it handles the issue Eric mentioned in [1]. But, again, it's probably a far cry from whatever a really robust version of this would be. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220421233152.58522-1-ebiggers@kernel.org/ https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220421192939.250680-1-ebiggers@kernel.org/ Cc: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@google.com> Cc: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@zx2c4.com> |
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| block | ||
| certs | ||
| crypto | ||
| Documentation | ||
| drivers | ||
| fs | ||
| include | ||
| init | ||
| ipc | ||
| kernel | ||
| lib | ||
| LICENSES | ||
| mm | ||
| net | ||
| samples | ||
| scripts | ||
| security | ||
| sound | ||
| tools | ||
| usr | ||
| virt | ||
| .clang-format | ||
| .cocciconfig | ||
| .get_maintainer.ignore | ||
| .gitattributes | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| .mailmap | ||
| COPYING | ||
| CREDITS | ||
| Kbuild | ||
| Kconfig | ||
| MAINTAINERS | ||
| Makefile | ||
| README | ||
Linux kernel
============
There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.
In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/
There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.
Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.