This daemon feeds entropy from a trusted source of true randomness (called
an entropy source) such as a hardware true random number generator
(TRNG), to an entropy sink such as the kernel's entropy pool. It does
so only after checking the data to ensure that it is suitably random.
Entropy measures the uncertainty (randomness) contained in an unit of
information. For the Linux kernel, this unit is a binary bit. The kernel
keeps all the entropy it gathers from different sources in an entropy pool,
from which it drawns uncertainty to generate random numbers. The primary
purpose of rngd is to keep this pool as full of randomness as possible.
rngd works on blocks of 20000 bits at a time, using the FIPS 140-2 tests
to verify the randomness of the block of data. If that data is deemed random,
the block is fed back random-step*8 bits at a time to the entropy sink,
(in the case of the kernel, this is done until the kernel's entropy pool is
at least fill-watermark full).
If working with the kernel as an entropy sink, and the entropy pool is full,
the daemon will force-feed the kernel random-step*8 bits of data every
feed-interval seconds, to stir the entropy pool. If the entropy source
used by rngd is of very high quality, this will improve the entropy of
the pool.
The -f or --foreground options can be used to tell
rngd to avoid forking on startup. This is typically used for
debugging. The -b or --background options, which fork and put
rngd into the background automatically, are the default.
The -R or --rng-driver options can be used to select the
type of entropy source.
The -r or --rng-device options can be used to select an
alternate source of entropy, instead of the default /dev/hwrng.
The -o or --random-device options can be used to select
an alternate entropy output device, instead of the default /dev/random.
Note that this device must support the Linux kernel's /dev/random
ioctl API.
The -H or --rng-entropy options should be used to inform
rngd about the entropy per bit of data received from the input source.
The -B or --rng-buffers options can be used to change the
number of buffers used by rngd. Each buffer holds a block of 20000 bits
of data, which will be either approved or discarded by the FIPS tests.
Decreasing the number of buffers below 3 can degrade rngd's performance.
Increasing it above 3 will only help if you have very big bursts of entropy
usage that a larger number of buffers can accomodate.
OPTIONS
-b, --background
Become a daemon (default).
-f, --foreground
Do not fork, nor detach from the controlling terminal.
-R name, --rng-driver=name (default: stream)
Entropy source driver. stream is a general purpose Unix stream input
driver, capable of receiving data from a file, named pipe, or Unix character
device.
viapadlock is an user-space driver for the TRNG embedded on some VIA
CPUs that have the VIA PadLock security engine.
Kernel device, fifo or file used for entropy input by the stream
entropy source driver.
--hrng=name
Selects known-good defaults for some HRNGs. help lists all
known HRNGs. You can override these defaults selectively with the
other options.
-H n.n, --rng-entropy=n.n (default: 1.0)
Entropy per bit of input data. This is a floating point
number between 0 and 1 (inclusive).
-Qquality, --rng-quality=quality
Selects the quality of the random data an entropy source will generate.
Quality is: default, low, medium or high.
Do not use anything but high if the entropy sink will use the random
data directly, instead of using it to seed a PRNG/entropy pool. Ignored by
the stream entropy source driver.
-B n, --rng-buffers=n (default: 3)
Number of 20000 bit buffers to use.
-s n, --random-step=n (default: 64)
Number of bytes written to random-device at a time. This
number should be even, and between 8 and 2500. Setting it too high will
cause rngd to dominate the contents of the entropy pool. Values
above 256 are unlikely to increase performance.
-W n, --fill-watermark=n[%] (default: 50%)
Once we start doing it, feed entropy to random-device until at least
fill-watermark bits of entropy are available in its entropy pool.
Setting this too high will cause rngd to dominate the contents of the
entropy pool. Low values will hurt system performance during entropy
starves. fill-watermark can be specified either as an absolute number
of bits, or as a percentage of the total size of the entropy pool.
-t n, --feed-interval=n (default: 60)
If feed-interval is not zero, rngd will force-feed entropy to the
random device even when the entropy pool is full every feed-interval
seconds. Setting this too low may cause rngd to dominate the contents of
the entropy pool.
--timeout=n
Deprecated, use --feed-interval instead.
-T n, --rng-timeout=n (default: 10)
Time to wait for data to start coming from the entropy source,
before giving up and aborting. Zero disables this functionality, and
will cause rngd to wait forever for the entropy source.
File to write PID to when running in background mode.
-?, --help
Give a short summary of all program options.
-V, --version
Print program version.
WARNING
Depending on its settings, rngd can dominate the kernel's entropy pool,
by feeding it so much data, so often, that other sources of entropy are mostly
ignored or lost. Do not to that unless you trust rngd's source of random
data ultimately.
Also, there is only so much bandwidth available from a HRNG, and it is often
not much. Don't drain too much with too low a feed-interval, or
rngd may not have enough data on its buffers when the kernel gets low on
entropy.
STATISTICS
rngd will dump some statistics to its output channel hourly, or when
sent a SIGUSR1 signal. The output channel is either stderr when
in foreground mode, or syslog when in background mode.
Bits received from HRNG source is the number of bits received by
rngd from the entropy source. Bits sent to kernel pool is the
number of bits sent by rngd to the kernel, and Entropy added to kernel
pool is the number of bits of entropy in that mass of data that was informed
to the kernel.
FIPS 140-2 successes and FIPS 140-2 failures counts the number of
20000-bit blocks either accepted or rejected by the FIPS 140-2 tests. The
other statistics show a breakdown of the FIPS 140-2 failures by FIPS
140-2 test. See the FIPS 140-2 document for more information.
HRNG source speed measures the speed of the entropy source, for reading
a 20000-bit block of data. FIPS tests speed measures the speed of the
FIPS 140-2 tests for a 20000-bit block of data.
Lowest ready-buffers level records the lowest number of ready buffers
(i.e. that can be fed to the kernel) hit so far. If it gets to zero, you
may want to increase rng-buffers. If it is always above 1, you may
want to decrease rng-buffers.
Entropy starvations counts the number of times the kernel asked
rngd for entropy, and rngd had none to give. Time spent starving
for entropy records the time spent by rngd waiting for a buffer with
good entropy to become available, during such an episode.
SIGNALS
rngd is multithreaded. If the threading implementation shows up
as multiple rngd processes, signals should be sent to the process
listed in the pidfile.
SIGTERM terminates rngd cleanly.
SIGUSR1 causes rngd to dump some statistics to its output
channel immediately.
EXIT STATUS
0 if no errors happen.
1 if rng-source is misbehaving.
10 if there are problems with the parameters, or if rngd fails to lock the pidfile, or if rng-device cannot be opened.
11 if an input/output error happens.
12 if an operating system or resource starvation error happens.
BUGS
The /dev/random driver in Linux kernels up to 2.4.28 inclusive (and probably
later ones too) has broken entropy accounting, and fails to do catrastrophic
reseeds correctly. This has been fixed in Linux 2.6.
It is a very bad idea to shrink the capacity of the kernel entropy pool
with rngd running, as it may misbehave the next time the pool drains.
Please restart rngd every time the kernel entropy pool size is changed.