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Russell: Sources of Randomness for UserspaceRussell: Sources of Randomness for UserspacePosted Mar 30, 2012 19:21 UTC (Fri) by rwp (guest, #75755)In reply to: Russell: Sources of Randomness for Userspace by rahvin Parent article: Russell: Sources of Randomness for Userspace
Personally, I would trust the randomness of a software algorithm that I could read and review to the output of a completely opaque hardware chip. Software requires environmental input, of course, which should also be observable.
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Russell: Sources of Randomness for Userspace Posted Mar 30, 2012 21:43 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] This argument can be used to discourage AES-NI, but unfortunately it does not fly when we are discussing RNG. Software literally can not create randomness. It's deterministic - that's the whole point. Sure, different pieces of hardware have different reliability WRT to predictability, but some hardware is always needed. As this point we are down to the randomness generated by Ethernet, Keyboard and Mouse and I fail to see where the idea that Ethernet (especially emulated one in VM) can generate better randomness then dedicated hardware comes from.
Russell: Sources of Randomness for Userspace Posted Apr 3, 2012 12:46 UTC (Tue) by rwp (guest, #75755) [Link]
Yes, of course. True randomness requires environment input. My point is that randomness you can use also requires trust, and trusting an opaque source doesn't cut the mustard. This is why using lava lamps to create random seeds makes so much sense - it's not just someone being cute. If I want to make a truly random seed today, I don't use my computer at all. I observe some external random event(s) and type in the results.
After seeding, I want my prng to be software, not hardware.
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