Re: Random seeds

Kriston J. Rehberg (kriston@ibm.net)
Thu, 25 Jun 1998 17:01:05 -0400

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One thing I've always wondered about are these listening random number
generators (I understand they are on certain kinds of FORTEZZA cards)
that use sound for entropy. What if the ambient sound is at such a
volume, such as on a machine floor, that the listening device's input is
so distorted and its values are always pegged at some "maximum" level,
that it provides no entropy at all?

Kris

Eric Murray wrote:
>
> Perry E. Metzger writes:
> >
> >
> > No general page (it would be GREAT if someone had a general page on
> > hardware RNG equipment), but the reference http://lavarand.sgi.com/
> > will at least amuse you.
>
> http://nz.com/webnz/robert/recent/lottery.html is a
> decent hardware RNG reference.
>
> A question: what would it be worth to have a cryptographic-quality
> hardware RNG available on consumer PC equipment? I.e. how many
> retail dollars do you think that the typical consumer would spend
> for it? This question is more a business question than a technical
> one (excepting the fact that its people paying money that drives
> most techologies) so perhaps replies should be sent to me instead of the list.
>
> --
> Eric Murray Chief Security Scientist N*Able Technologies www.nabletech.com
> (email: ericm at lne.com or nabletech.com) PGP keyid:E03F65E5

-- 
Kriston J. Rehberg
http://kriston.net/
AOL: Kriston                                   endeavor to persevere

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