GNU bug report logs - #22202
24.5; SECURITY ISSUE -- Emacs Server vulnerable to random number generator attack on Windows systems

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Demetri Obenour <demetriobenour <at> gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 10:09:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: security

Found in version 24.5

Done: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #41 received at 22202 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Richard Copley <rcopley <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 22202 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Demetri Obenour <demetriobenour <at> gmail.com>,
 David Engster <deng <at> randomsample.de>
Subject: Re: bug#22202: 24.5; SECURITY ISSUE -- Emacs Server vulnerable to
 random number generator attack on Windows systems
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 20:56:03 +0000
Ah, I forgot to mention one other thing that had occurred to me.
It might not be a good idea to pass the current time to CryptGenRandom
for the optional initial seed. The current time (in various forms) is
already used as seed entropy by the system, and it's conceivable
(though implausible) that we could be destroying entropy by doing
this. It's probably better (and "acceptable" according to the
documentation) not to pass any seed at all.




This bug report was last modified 9 years and 178 days ago.

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