From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Oct 7 14:20:03 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA29754 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 7 Oct 1996 14:20:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sequent.kiae.su (sequent.kiae.su [193.125.152.6]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id OAA29690; Mon, 7 Oct 1996 14:19:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: by sequent.kiae.su id AA29277 (5.65.kiae-2 ); Tue, 8 Oct 1996 01:05:29 +0400 Received: by sequent.KIAE.su (UUMAIL/2.0); Tue, 8 Oct 96 01:05:26 +0400 Received: (from ache@localhost) by nagual.ru (8.7.6/8.7.3) id BAA00680; Tue, 8 Oct 1996 01:04:59 +0400 (MSD) Message-Id: <199610072104.BAA00680@nagual.ru> Subject: Re: I plan to change random() for -current (was Re: rand() and random()) In-Reply-To: <199610072044.NAA14940@phaeton.artisoft.com> from "Terry Lambert" at "Oct 7, 96 01:44:14 pm" To: terry@lambert.org (Terry Lambert) Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 01:04:58 +0400 (MSD) Cc: terry@lambert.org, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org, current@FreeBSD.org, bde@zeta.org.au From: "=?KOI8-R?Q?=E1=CE=C4=D2=C5=CA_=FE=C5=D2=CE=CF=D7?=" (Andrey A. Chernov) Organization: self X-Class: Fast X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL28 (25)] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > Current random() code is joke from mathematical point of view (but not from > > ANSI/ISO standards). It is why it needs fixing. > > All pseudo-random algoritms are cryptographically weak (as others have > already pointed out). The only justification I've seen so far is the > GIMP code, and it's a weak justification (you want me to carry around > my own random generator, therefore I want the GIMP people to do the same). I tired to repeat that I not consider possible weakness of random() at this point and do not attempt to make it better cryptographically or make it better random distributed. I only try to make seeding idea meaningful, because current implementation makes seeding practically useless. -- Andrey A. Chernov http://www.nagual.ru/~ache/