Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Wed, 15 May 1996 19:15:52 -0400 | From | Robert L Krawitz <> | Subject | Re: CONFIG_RANDOM option for 1.99.2 |
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Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 18:01:45 -0600 (CST) From: Aaron Ucko <UCKO@VAX1.ROCKHURST.EDU>
>What if someone's running in very tight memory (2-4 MB) and for one >reason or another doesn't care about crackers (isn't on the net, or >just doesn't care about security)? The only feasible thing that the >kernel needs good random numbers for is security, and people should >have the option to turn that off if the memory and CPU cycles are too >critical.
Yes, but nonsecurity-related userspace programs might also want good random numbers. Consider a simulation using the Monte Carlo method--pseudorandom numbers might produce misleading results.
Someone who's running Monte Carlo simulations hopefully has a fair bit of memory available, and knows enough about random number generators to realize the importance of a good one. For that matter, the problem with random numbers for Monte Carlo methods is rarely the quality of the seed, but rather the quality of the generator (the f(x+1) term). If the generator has poor spectral properties, it doesn't matter how good the initial seed was.
/dev/random generates an excellent initial random number, and perhaps a small number more such numbers. It's not designed for generating the millions of random numbers that a simulation may need. It is designed for generating a small number of random numbers to serve as cryptographic keys.
-- Robert Krawitz <rlk@tiac.net> http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/
Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lpf@uunet.uu.net Tall Clubs International -- tci-request@aptinc.com or 1-800-521-2512
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