Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 00:14:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.org> To: James Wyatt <jwyatt@rwsystems.net> Cc: Garrett Wollman <wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>, Adam Back <adam@cypherspace.org>, security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: yarrow & /dev/random Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0008270011040.64244-100000@freefall.freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10008270030050.40482-100000@bsdie.rwsystems.net>
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On Sun, 27 Aug 2000, James Wyatt wrote:
> On servers with no regular keyboard or mouse use, there is usually enough
> entropy in the disk and network IO to serve the purpose. Small servers
> with low net and disk entropy often get used as consoles for busier
> servers. Your mileage may vary, of course. What other sources of entropy
> might one consider? Maybe an AM radio tuned to static hooked into
> /dev/audio to get random samples? - Jy@
My observations suggest that a sound card tuned to maximum input gain with
no microphone input (i.e. sampling noise in the card) is a very good
source of randomness, with at least 6 bits of entropy per 16 bit sample
for most cards, which can be sampled at 44Khz (i.e. about 32 kilobytes of
randomness per second, far in excess of what Yarrow needs).
More than enough for even heavy server needs.
Kris
--
In God we Trust -- all others must submit an X.509 certificate.
-- Charles Forsythe <forsythe@alum.mit.edu>
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