Re: [Sks-devel] why does SKS have /dev/random open for writing?

[Jeremy T. Bouse]

Looks fine on my system and I'm running the stock 1.1.4 code.

address@hidden:~# lsof /dev/random
COMMAND   PID        USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
named    2617        bind    9r   CHR    1,8      0t0 7175 /dev/random
java    15783 chef_server    6r   CHR    1,8      0t0 7175 /dev/random
java    15783 chef_server   42r   CHR    1,8      0t0 7175 /dev/random
sks     19277  debian-sks    3r   CHR    1,8      0t0 7175 /dev/random
sks     19278  debian-sks    3r   CHR    1,8      0t0 7175 /dev/random

address@hidden:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Release:    12.04
Codename:    precise

address@hidden:~# dpkg -l sks
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
|
Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                       Version                    Description
+++-==========================-==========================-====================================================================
ii  sks                        1.1.4-2                    Synchronizing
OpenPGP Key Server


On 09/19/2013 02:08 PM, Arnold wrote:
> My Debian system looks normal (only Debian stable/wheezy packages).
>
> lsof /dev/random
> COMMAND  PID       USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
> sks     2638 debian-sks    3r   CHR    1,8      0t0 1209 /dev/random
> sks     2639 debian-sks    3r   CHR    1,8      0t0 1209 /dev/random
>
> uname -a
> Linux pgpkeys 3.2.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.2.46-1 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>
> dpkg-query -l sks
> ...
>     Name            Version        Architecture Description
> +++-===============-==============-============-================================
> ii  sks             1.1.3-2        amd64        Synchronizing OpenPGP Key 
> Server
>
>
> Arnold
>
> On 09/19/2013 07:31 PM, Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
>> hi SKS folks--
>>
>> I was just looking at the behavior of sks 1.1.4, and i noticed that it
>> seems to have /dev/random open for writing:
>>
>> 0 zimmermann:~# lsof /dev/random 
>> COMMAND PID       USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
>> sks     742 debian-sks    3w   CHR    1,8      0t0 1244 /dev/random
>> sks     756 debian-sks    3w   CHR    1,8      0t0 1244 /dev/random
>> 0 zimmermann:~# 
>>
>> this is not read/write (which would be marked as 3u instead of 3w), but
>> write-only (presumably appending) to the character device.
>>
>> I'm not clear on why this is happening.  I don't see /dev/random
>> referenced explicitly in the source.  Anyone have any clue about what
>> it's doing?  This is happening for me on debian systems -- can users of
>> other systems confirm or deny that this is happening for them as well?
>>
>> Maybe it's an artifact of one of the ocaml libraries sks depends on?
>> I'm not sure how i'd debug that to verify it.
>>
>>       --dkg
>>

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