Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 24 Jan 2000 16:08:31 +0100 | From | Frank v Waveren <> | Subject | Re: Intel 810 Random Number Generator |
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On Mon, Jan 24, 2000 at 10:02:54AM -0500, Jeff Garzik 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?
--
Frank v Waveren fvw@var.cx ICQ# 10074100
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