Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 11:31:54 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy <peter.jeremy@auss2.alcatel.com.au> To: joelh@gnu.org Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /dev/random usage Message-ID: <98Nov24.113253est.40372@border.alcanet.com.au>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>That's interesting. What about apps not in our tree? ssh, ncpfs and pgp5 that I have. I don't know about SSLeay, but that is another obvious candidate. > Mostly, I'm >wondering what apps need large quantities of completely random >numbers, and use our hooks to get it. I think few apps need large quantities of random numbers. The main one I can think of is creating one-time pads. Pseudo-random numbers are adequate for most non-crypto applications, and most crypto applications require relatively small quantities of true randomness (usually only for key generation). This is good since generating large quantities of random numbers is difficult (I'm not sure what the rate of entropy creation within /dev/random is for a typical system). Peter -- Peter Jeremy (VK2PJ) peter.jeremy@alcatel.com.au Alcatel Australia Limited 41 Mandible St Phone: +61 2 9690 5019 ALEXANDRIA NSW 2015 Fax: +61 2 9690 5247 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?98Nov24.113253est.40372>