Bug 149

Summary:	--with-random=[FILE] no longer available
Product:	Portable OpenSSH	Reporter:	erik welch <erik.welch>
Component:	Build system	Assignee:	OpenSSH Bugzilla mailing list <openssh-bugs>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P2
Version:	-current
Hardware:	SPARC
OS:	Solaris

Description erik welch 2002-03-08 10:07:05 AEDT

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...

Comment 1 Damien Miller 2002-03-08 10:35:27 AEDT

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

Comment 2 Ben Lindstrom 2002-09-26 10:08:20 AEST

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.

Comment 3 Damien Miller 2004-04-14 12:24:18 AEST

Mass change of RESOLVED bugs to CLOSED