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authorSebastian Lackner2017-11-19 13:30:04 +0100
committerrfjakob2017-11-21 23:37:06 +0100
commitf3c777d5eaa682d878c638192311e52f9c204294 (patch)
treedc3fcf616371479abec93ab93688f9e2937e7d9d /Documentation
parent1b0426bcb23a1850f3a03619a15413281dc733e3 (diff)
main: Add '-devrandom' commandline option
Allows to use /dev/random for generating the master key instead of the default Go implementation. When the kernel random generator has been properly initialized both are considered equally secure, however: * Versions of Go prior to 1.9 just fall back to /dev/urandom if the getrandom() syscall would be blocking (Go Bug #19274) * Kernel versions prior to 3.17 do not support getrandom(), and there is no check if the random generator has been properly initialized before reading from /dev/urandom This is especially useful for embedded hardware with low-entroy. Please note that generation of the master key might block indefinitely if the kernel cannot harvest enough entropy.
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/MANPAGE.md7
1 files changed, 7 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/MANPAGE.md b/Documentation/MANPAGE.md
index efb8565..d3a6c81 100644
--- a/Documentation/MANPAGE.md
+++ b/Documentation/MANPAGE.md
@@ -51,6 +51,13 @@ be suitable.
#### -d, -debug
Enable debug output
+#### -devrandom
+Use /dev/random for generating the master key instead of the default Go
+implementation. This is especially useful on embedded systems with Go versions
+prior to 1.9, which fall back to weak random data when the getrandom syscall
+is blocking. Using this option can block indefinitely when the kernel cannot
+harvest enough entropy.
+
#### -extpass string
Use an external program (like ssh-askpass) for the password prompt.
The program should return the password on stdout, a trailing newline is