From owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Tue Jul 14 12:45:40 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 06D1B999726 for ; Tue, 14 Jul 2015 12:45:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from george+freebsd@m5p.com) Received: from mailhost.m5p.com (mailhost.m5p.com [IPv6:2001:418:3fd::f7]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B9D1BDED for ; Tue, 14 Jul 2015 12:45:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from george+freebsd@m5p.com) Received: from [IPv6:2001:418:3fd::1f] (haymarket.m5p.com [IPv6:2001:418:3fd::1f]) by mailhost.m5p.com (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id t6ECjVSs083379 for ; Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:45:37 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from george+freebsd@m5p.com) Message-ID: <55A5046B.4090000@m5p.com> Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:45:31 -0400 From: George Mitchell User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.7.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Does /dev/random in virtual guests provide good random data? References: <55A2FB68.3070006@rawbw.com> <55A3763B.7010303@rawbw.com> <20150713144630.32cd851a@gumby.homeunix.com> <20150714013342.GA79791@blazingdot.com> In-Reply-To: <20150714013342.GA79791@blazingdot.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.73 X-Greylist: Sender passed SPF test, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.7 (mailhost.m5p.com [IPv6:2001:418:3fd::f7]); Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:45:37 -0400 (EDT) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2015 12:45:40 -0000 On 07/13/15 21:33, Marcus Reid wrote: > On Mon, Jul 13, 2015 at 02:46:30PM +0100, RW via freebsd-hackers wrote: >> FreeBSD uses Yarrow > > As of recently, -CURRENT uses Fortuna by default, which is the successor > to Yarrow. It was also devised by Bruce Schneier (with Neils Ferguson). > >> , which was designed by Bruce Schneier, a professional cryptographer >> who created the Blowfish cipher, the AES candidate Twofish and PGP. > > PGP was created by Phil Zimmermann, not Schneier. > > Marcus > >> Linux's /dev/random was designed by programmers; actually a lot of >> them, its greatest problem is that it's a mess of patches from >> amateurs. > [...] Donald Knuth's excellent books on the Art of Computer Programming give an example of the pitfalls of programmers designing random number generators at the beginning of Chapter 3, "Random Numbers," with "Algorithm K" devised by Knuth himself in his youth. It converged almost immediately. "The moral to this story," writes Knuth, "is that /random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random/." (c) 1969 Addison-Wesley -- George