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Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:01:40 +0200
From: Andreas Ericsson <ae@....se>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
CC: Marcus Meissner <meissner@...e.de>
Subject: Re: expat hash collision fix too predictable?

On 04/05/2012 11:30 AM, Marcus Meissner wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> while reviewing a expat regression (likely caused by the hash collision denial of service fix, but unclear)
> i stumbled about the randomness it uses.
> 
> 	static unsigned long
> 	generate_hash_secret_salt(void)
> 	{
> 	  unsigned int seed = time(NULL) % UINT_MAX;
> 	  srand(seed);
> 	  return rand();
> 	}
> 
> and it is seeded once at parser object creation.
> 
> This is better than not seeding, but I am not sure if it is sufficient.
> 

A pretty simple fix that makes it far better is to do

	struct timeval tv;
	unsigned int seed;

	gettimeofday(&tv, NULL);
	seed = (tv.tv_usec * 65531) % UINT_MAX;
	srand(seed);
	return rand();

The other option is ofcourse to not involve timestamps at all and
instead rely on a source with higher entropy, but this is usually
sufficient to make attacking it very unappealing. Especially when
considering that many xml docs contain a timestamp of when they were
generated, making the issue that much worse.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@....se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

Considering the successes of the wars on alcohol, poverty, drugs and
terror, I think we should give some serious thought to declaring war
on peace.

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