Description of problem: genkey uses the truerand library unconditionally to generate private keys. Todays's CPUs contain hardware random number generators; many of us also use (e.g. USB dongles) to generate high-quality random numbers quickly. genkey needs an option to use /dev/random (or /dev/hw_random) instead of truerand. Also, note that the man page says "genkey generates random data for the private key using the truerand library and also by prompting the user for entry of random text." I've never seen genkey prompt for random text. While in the code, a --version qualifier would also be a good idea. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): crypto-utils.x86_64 2.4.1-34.fc17 @anaconda-0 How reproducible: Simply use genkey (e.g. genkey foo) Steps to Reproduce: 1. genkey localhost 2. select a key size 3. wait ... and wait ... and wait... Note on a system with a USB dongle [EntropyKey]: cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail 3968 cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize 4096 Yet a 2048 bit key takes minutes to generate. Actual results: Keys take minutes to generate on an unloaded system with hardware random generator. Expected results: Keys should be generated instantly (when entropy is available and /dev/random is specified as source) Additional info:
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crypto-utils was retired from Fedora. /usr/bin/certwatch is available from the certwatch package. sscg should be used to replace any use of genkey.