On 3/30/2013 9:50 PM, Anthony Papillion wrote: > I meed to generate a new key and want to make sure I create enough > entropy to make the key secure. My normal method is to type on the > keyboard, start large programs, etc. But a friend suggested that I use > /dev/random. > > Is this suitable for creating a PGP key? I've got concerns.
By default, GnuPG uses RNGs that are as high-quality as the operating system provides. However, since there's no standard RNG across operating systems, GnuPG has no standard RNG, either. On Win32 GnuPG uses the Win32 API and CryptGenRandom; on many UNIXes it uses /dev/random; I don't know what the OpenVMS port uses but I rather doubt it's either /dev/random or CryptGenRandom. :) The best advice I can give you is "use whatever GnuPG uses by default for your operating system." It's the default for a reason: namely, it's safe and known to work well. :) _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
