From owner-freebsd-current Sat Jul 22 5: 0:39 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from grimreaper.grondar.za (grimreaper.grondar.za [196.7.18.138]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C694737B5C9; Sat, 22 Jul 2000 05:00:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mark@grondar.za) Received: from grimreaper.grondar.za (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by grimreaper.grondar.za (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA06345; Sat, 22 Jul 2000 14:00:26 +0200 (SAST) (envelope-from mark@grimreaper.grondar.za) Message-Id: <200007221200.OAA06345@grimreaper.grondar.za> To: Kris Kennaway Cc: current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: randomdev entropy gathering is really weak References: In-Reply-To: ; from Kris Kennaway "Sat, 22 Jul 2000 02:21:15 MST." Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 14:00:26 +0200 From: Mark Murray Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, Mark Murray wrote: > > > Because of Yarrow's cryptographic protection of its internal state, its > > frequent reseeds and its clever geneation mechanism, this paradigm is > > less important - the output is 256-bit safe (Blowfish safe) for any size > > of output[*]. When you read 1000 bits, I am not selling you 1000 bits > > each guaranteed random, I am selling you 1000 bits that are predictable > > within the constraints of needing to crack 256-bit Blowfish. > > So what it if I want/need 257 bits? :-) Read them. You'll get them. If you want higher quality randomness than Yarrow gives, read more than once. Do other stuff; play. Don't get stuck in the "I have exhausted the randomness pool" loop; Yarrow does not play that game. From the Yarrow paper: ``Yarrow's outputs are cryptographically derived. Systems that use Yarrow's outputs are no more secure than the generation mechanism used.'' We currently have Yarrow-256(Blowfish); wanna make it Yarrow-1024? I could make it so. 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