Instead of mixing in random data for the initial seed, the only “random” value that was used was the current process ID. On the Linux platform, the default maximum process ID is 32,768, resulting in a very small number of seed values being used for all PRNG operations.
I thought this has to have been the reference
Alas, the reference is real life.
The comic itself references Debian.
Very cool if so. Because the comic was published on Feb 9 2007, while the Debian vuln was announced May 13 2008.
Oh my God, when I heard about this I figured some super computer was out there breaking encryption, but nope.
wtf 🫢️