From owner-freebsd-current Fri Sep 1 5:29:43 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from lists01.iafrica.com (lists01.iafrica.com [196.7.0.141]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E05DB37B42C; Fri, 1 Sep 2000 05:29:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nwl.fw.uunet.co.za ([196.31.2.162]) by lists01.iafrica.com with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #2) id 13Upwq-0006rG-00; Fri, 01 Sep 2000 14:29:33 +0200 Received: (from nobody@localhost) by nwl.fw.uunet.co.za (8.8.8/8.6.9) id OAA14067; Fri, 1 Sep 2000 14:29:31 +0200 (SAST) Received: by nwl.fw.uunet.co.za via recvmail id 13904; Fri Sep 1 14:27:59 2000 Received: from grimreaper.grondar.za (mark@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by grimreaper.grondar.za (8.11.0/8.11.0) with ESMTP id e81CSwR04242; Fri, 1 Sep 2000 14:28:58 +0200 (SAST) (envelope-from mark@grimreaper.grondar.za) Message-Id: <200009011228.e81CSwR04242@grimreaper.grondar.za> To: Kris Kennaway Cc: Adam Back , current@FreeBSD.org, jeroen@vangelderen.org, yarrow@zeroknowledge.com Subject: Re: yarrow & /dev/random References: In-Reply-To: ; from Kris Kennaway "Fri, 01 Sep 2000 03:06:28 MST." Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2000 14:28:58 +0200 From: Mark Murray Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > PC's are pretty low-entropy devices; users who need lots of random > > bits (as opposed to a steady supply of random numbers) are arguably > > going to need to go to extraordinary lengths to get them; their > > own statistical analysis is almost certainly going to be required. > > I claim this to be untrue: my tests show an ordinary sound card (with no > recording source, at maximum input gain) will provide far more > (high-quality) entropy than Yarrow can make use of under even the most > punishing loads. Kris; could you come up with some kind of proof-of-concept for this? I don't want to steal a sound card, but being able to use one at the user's request is good; I'd need kernel-mode code to do some harvesting. M -- Mark Murray Join the anti-SPAM movement: http://www.cauce.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message