From: Jonathan McDowell <noodles@xxxxxxxx> The HW RNG core allows for manual selection of which RNG device to use, but does not allow for no device to be enabled. It may be desirable to do this on systems with only a single suitable hardware RNG, where we need exclusive access to other functionality on this device. In particular when performing TPM firmware upgrades this lets us ensure the kernel does not try to access the device. Before: root@debian-qemu-efi:~# grep "" /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_* /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_available:tpm-rng-0 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current:tpm-rng-0 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_quality:1024 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_selected:0 After: root@debian-qemu-efi:~# grep "" /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_* /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_available:tpm-rng-0 none /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current:tpm-rng-0 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_quality:1024 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_selected:0 root@debian-qemu-efi:~# echo none > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current root@debian-qemu-efi:~# grep "" /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_* /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_available:tpm-rng-0 none /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current:none grep: /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_quality: No such device /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_selected:1 (Observe using bpftrace no calls to TPM being made) root@debian-qemu-efi:~# echo "" > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current root@debian-qemu-efi:~# grep "" /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_* /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_available:tpm-rng-0 none /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current:tpm-rng-0 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_quality:1024 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_selected:0 (Observe using bpftrace that calls to the TPM resume) Signed-off-by: Jonathan McDowell <noodles@xxxxxxxx> --- drivers/char/hw_random/core.c | 6 +++++- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c b/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c index 018316f54621..11c8077b792b 100644 --- a/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c +++ b/drivers/char/hw_random/core.c @@ -341,6 +341,10 @@ static ssize_t rng_current_store(struct device *dev, if (sysfs_streq(buf, "")) { err = enable_best_rng(); + } else if (sysfs_streq(buf, "none")) { + if (current_rng) + cur_rng_set_by_user = 1; + drop_current_rng(); } else { list_for_each_entry(rng, &rng_list, list) { if (sysfs_streq(rng->name, buf)) { @@ -392,7 +396,7 @@ static ssize_t rng_available_show(struct device *dev, strlcat(buf, rng->name, PAGE_SIZE); strlcat(buf, " ", PAGE_SIZE); } - strlcat(buf, "\n", PAGE_SIZE); + strlcat(buf, "none\n", PAGE_SIZE); mutex_unlock(&rng_mutex); return strlen(buf); -- 2.51.0