David Schwartz wrote:
Nicholas Maniscalco wrote:
Can someone help me understand the motivation for why -DPURIFY isn't
the
default? I've read through the openssl-dev@ and openssl-users@
archives
and have found several threads involving -DPURIFY, but I've been unable
to glean the motivation behind it being off by default. From what I
can
tell, the primary motivation is performance. Just looking for some
confirmation or to be corrected.
The primary motivation for -DPURIFY being off by default is that people only
rarely use tools like Purify where it matters. Perhaps your real question is
"why does OpenSSL contain some code that must be modified or disabled when
-DPURIFY is specified?" In that case, the answer is that such code provides
some upside and no downside.
Aside from a potential performance impact, are there other aspects I
should consider before running a -DPURIFY build in a production system?
You should consider whether it makes any logical sense. If you don't use the
tools for which '-DPURIFY' should be defined, why are you doing it? And if
you do use such tools, then you should definitely define PURIFY -- that's
what it's for.
I'm, of course, assuming that any gain in entropy by using memory
without first initializing it is negligible and in no way vital to the
security of OpenSSL routines.
I do not believe it is negligible, but it is in no way vital.
Thanks. You answered my question.
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