Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 15:02:17 +0200 From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk> To: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@flood.ping.uio.no> Cc: Dan Moschuk <dan@FreeBSD.ORG>, "Jeroen C. van Gelderen" <jeroen@vangelderen.org>, Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>, arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: (2nd iteration) New /dev/(random|null|zero) - review, please Message-ID: <44443.961419737@critter.freebsd.dk> In-Reply-To: Your message of "19 Jun 2000 14:34:50 %2B0200." <xzpwvjlu9w5.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>
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In message <xzpwvjlu9w5.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>, Dag-Erling Smorgrav writes: >Dan Moschuk <dan@FreeBSD.ORG> writes: >> I have a driver for the i82802 chipset (Intel Thermal Noise RNG) that >> needs to be newbus-ified before committing. Anyone that can help me >> with this, it would be appreciated. > >The idea of built-in hardware RNGs bothers me a little. How can the >manufacturer guarantee that all units are perfectly identical and >indistinguishable? Is it conceivable that a hardware RNG might leave >(be it by accident or by design) some kind of fingerprint in its >output that might be detectable if you know what to look for? Reminds >me of Sherlock Holmes comparing typewritten documents to see if they >were produced on the same typewriter. And just because you went out and bought your RNG separately, what difference would it make ? If an RNG has a fingerprint, you may be identified by it, no matter where you bought it or how. The trick is to not use too many of your bits too fast. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD coreteam member | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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