"independently of ASLR, it would still be nice if the kernel provided a 'strong' but fast PRNG device that one could for example use to sanitize a harddrive at raw write speeds, something that isn't possible with /dev/urandom for example. if such a PRNG existed it could then of course be used for ASLR as well but ASLR itself can live with less (ditto for the SSP cookie by the way)."
So this is really an upstream Linux kernel request or, at the outside, a request to the kernel team to include an out-of-kernel patch. If such a PRNG existed it could be used for ASLR and SSP and for "(scientific) simulations, wiping the disk, stress tests on algorithms".
"independently of ASLR, it would still be nice if the kernel provided a 'strong' but fast PRNG device that one could for example use to sanitize a harddrive at raw write speeds, something that isn't possible with /dev/urandom for example. if such a PRNG existed it could then of course be used for ASLR as well but ASLR itself can live with less (ditto for the SSP cookie by the way)."
http:// lwn.net/ Articles/ 334027/
So this is really an upstream Linux kernel request or, at the outside, a request to the kernel team to include an out-of-kernel patch. If such a PRNG existed it could be used for ASLR and SSP and for "(scientific) simulations, wiping the disk, stress tests on algorithms".
The erandom device seems worthy of consideration (http:// www.billauer. co.il/frandom. html). It seems to reach" harddrive raw write speeds" at 155MB/s (http:// ubuntuforums. org/showthread. php?t=1076959). The frandom/erandom code was rejected from the kernel in 2003 (http:// lkml.indiana. edu/hypermail/ linux/kernel/ 0310.2/ 0015.html) but that was before ASLR and SSP became the default on GNU/Linux systems. Perhaps it's worth revisiting that debate.