Date: Sun, 01 Oct 1995 22:26:41 +0200 From: Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za> To: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> Cc: mark@grondar.za (Mark Murray), hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: How to get to the hardware? Message-ID: <199510012026.WAA07503@grumble.grondar.za>
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> > I am working on a device (/dev/random) to give truly nasty random numbers > > for crypto/security use, and it is mostly going OK. I have some code > > written by Theodore Ts'o, and it is good stuff, but it is for the Linux > > kernel. Could someone please suggest to me the best way of doing the > > following in the FreeBSD kernel: (I am not sure I like the concept of just > > messing with the timer directly, and yes, I have had a look at microtime.s) > > The bits I do not line are the outb_p() and inb_p(). There _has_ to be a > > better way... > > The code shown is pseudo-random. The insides of TS'o's code hunt down many unpredictable and volatile parameters in your machine, stirring them into a 'pool of entropy' from which some truly nasty numers can be drawn. > What's wrong with the linear congruential algorithm in ran48/drand48? Everything. They are not random, and they form a trackable sequence. The idea here is to generate a completely unpredictable starting point from which an exponential key exchange can springboard itself. Netscape was cracked because the possible starting points (time based) were from too small a set, and a bit of computing power broke it. This was well publicised on the net. M -- Mark Murray 46 Harvey Rd, Claremont, Cape Town 7700, South Africa +27 21 61-3768 GMT+0200 Finger mark@grumble.grondar.za for PGP key
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