Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 24 Jan 2000 13:28:49 -0500 (EST) | From | "Mike A. Harris" <> | Subject | Re: Intel 810 Random Number Generator |
| |
On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, Frank v Waveren wrote:
>> Frank v Waveren wrote: >> > Am I missing something here? I thought that you could mix all the non-random >> > numbers you want into the entropy pool (long live xor), and it will never make >> > the entropy worse? So I'd say mixing in the RNG won't do any harm, so why not? >> >> Read the intro text in drivers/char/random.c... >> >> If the RNG provides a lot more data than other entropy sources, it can >> throw things out of whack. > >Hmm, interesting. I quote (in case someone else is interested) > > * outside observer to measure. Randomness from these sources are > * added to an "entropy pool", which is mixed using a CRC-like function. > * This is not cryptographically strong, but it is adequate assuming > * the randomness is not chosen maliciously, and it is fast enough that > * the overhead of doing it on every interrupt is very reasonable. > >Why not use XOR, which is 'pretty quick' too, and *really* doesn't care if >your mixing in your bookmarks file or radioactive decay data?
Muaahhahahahahah! Made my day! ;o)
-- Mike A. Harris Linux advocate Computer Consultant GNU advocate Capslock Consulting Open Source advocate
Join the FreeMWare project - the goal to produce a FREE program in which you can run Windows 95/98/NT, and other operating systems.
http://www.freemware.org
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |