It is listed as being available in the INSTALL file ($Id: INSTALL,v 1.48 2001/12/27 22:57:34 djm Exp $) "--with-random=/some/file", but does not seem to be available on configure. The following command only finds "--with-rand-helper" ./configure --help |grep random Configuring openssh-3.1p1 with the --with-random=/dev/random flag generates the following messages (among others): Random number source: ssh-rand-helper ssh-rand-helper collects from: Command hashing (timeout 200) WARNING: you are using the builtin random number collection service. Please read WARNING.RNG and request that your OS vendor includes kernel-based random number collection in future versions of your OS. Solaris has a /dev/random package available (SUNWski) in the "Easy Access Server" CD. It is much easier to install than prngd/egd for large environments where we packagify apps for quick installation...
The best fix is to rebuild OpenSSL with support for /dev/random built-in. That way all libcrypto-using apps will automatically pick up support for it. As a workaround you can do this: cat << EOF >> ssh-rand-helper.devrandom #!/bin/sh dd if=/dev/random bs=48 count=1 2>/dev/null EOF ./configure [options] --with-rand-helper make cp ssh-rand-helper.devrandom ssh-rand-helper make install
INSTALL document had been updated. Correct way of handling /dev/random under Solaris is to recompile OpenSSL to support it. Or use the example Damien gave.
Mass change of RESOLVED bugs to CLOSED