Re: randomdev entropy gathering is really weak

[Mark Murray]

> On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, Mark Murray wrote:
> 
> > Because of Yarrow's cryptographic protection of its internal state, its
> > frequent reseeds and its clever geneation mechanism, this paradigm is
> > less important - the output is 256-bit safe (Blowfish safe) for any size
> > of output[*]. When you read 1000 bits, I am not selling you 1000 bits
> > each guaranteed random, I am selling you 1000 bits that are predictable
> > within the constraints of needing to crack 256-bit Blowfish.
> 
> So what it if I want/need 257 bits? :-)

Read them. You'll get them. If you want higher quality randomness than
Yarrow gives, read more than once. Do other stuff; play. Don't get stuck
in the "I have exhausted the randomness pool" loop; Yarrow does not play
that game.

>From the Yarrow paper:
``Yarrow's outputs are cryptographically derived. Systems that use Yarrow's
outputs are no more secure than the generation mechanism used.''

We currently have Yarrow-256(Blowfish); wanna make it Yarrow-1024? I could
make it so.

M
--
Mark Murray
Join the anti-SPAM movement: http://www.cauce.org


To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message