Intel 810 Random Number Generator

[H. Peter Anvin]

Followup to:  <20000124161304.A21992 en atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz>
By author:    Pavel Machek <pavel en suse.cz>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>
> hi!
> 
> > > > Is it feasible to offer a compile-time option which simply replaces
> > > > /dev/random?
> > > 
> > > Methinks that would be an error. You'd be trusting the RNG too much.
> > > Use it as an input to /dev/random by all means, but not as a
> > > replacement.
> > 
> > Either you trust RNG or you don't.  There is no middle ground.
> 
> I just trust hardware RNG to be more random then keypresses. Yes there
> is middle ground.
> 
> > If you do not trust RNG, then using it as a /dev/random entropy source
> > is pointless.  Why introduce theoretically non-random entropy to the
> > /dev/random pool?
> 
> We already include keypresses in /dev/random pool. They are not
> random, are they? Network packet timing is also far from random, is
> it? But both are still valuable sources of data.
> 

The only issue is how much do you bump the enthrophy counter.  If you
bump it 0 everytime, you could enter constant data without problems
(in fact, some sources bump 0 because we can't *guarantee* that they
have more enthropy than that.)  If you bump it more than that, you are
making the promise that *at least* that much enthropy was injected in
the pool.

    -hpa

-- 
<hpa en transmeta.com> at work, <hpa en zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."

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