Re: RNG in a Smart Card

David Honig (honig@m7.sprynet.com)
Mon, 27 Jul 1998 10:49:23 -0700

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At 01:41 AM 7/27/98, Peter Gutmann wrote:
>>>The question is: how does a smart card harvest entropy to generate "good"
>>>random numbers? There aren't UI events, network packets, etc.
>
>>A noise diode and a few gates.
>
>Actually most of them use security through obscurity. I'm not aware of any
>which use noise diodes because of the difficulty in manufacturing something
>like this on the same die as the processor and memory.

1. Mixed-signal circuits are possible. As are bipolar-CMOS processes.
They are admittedly more expensive.

2. What does a surface-mount zener cost?

honig@alum.mit.edu

   "Speech is not protected simply because it is written in a language"
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