Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 08:31:41 +0200 From: Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za> To: James Wyatt <jwyatt@rwsystems.net> Cc: Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com>, "Andrew J. Korty" <ajk@iu.edu>, security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Cryptographic dump(8) Message-ID: <200005040631.IAA05674@grimreaper.grondar.za> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10005031304120.21115-100000@bsdie.rwsystems.net> ; from James Wyatt <jwyatt@rwsystems.net> "Wed, 03 May 2000 13:06:04 EST." References: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10005031304120.21115-100000@bsdie.rwsystems.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> On Wed, 3 May 2000, Matthew Dillon wrote: > [ losts stuff deleted ] > > Also, putting a random number in each block is important if each block > > is separately encrypted, for the same reason. > > > > Using /dev/random to obtain your random numbers is considered to be > > acceptable. > > How can you tell how much entropy is in the 'pool' for /dev/random and > it's about to start being not-so-random? Pull a sample once in a while and > Chi test it? I like being able to know. - Jy@ /dev/random only gives out enough bytes to cover its current pool size estimate; after that it blocks. /dev/urandom will give a hash of the pool and continue stirring to pool for as long as you read it. M -- Mark Murray Join the anti-SPAM movement: http://www.cauce.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200005040631.IAA05674>