Hey all, Looking for feedback on this section on RNGs: http://www.subspacefield.org/security/security_concepts/index.html#tth_sEc29 Equations are broken in HTML, but clear in PDF: http://www.subspacefield.org/security/security_concepts/security_concepts.pdf I am aware the Renyi entropy link is broken.
I also wanted to double-check these answers before I included them: 1) Is Linux /dev/{u,}random FIPS 140 certified? No, because FIPS 140-2 does not allow TRNGs (what they call non-deterministic). I couldn't tell if FIPS 140-1 allowed it, but FIPS 140-2 supersedes FIPS 140-1. I assume they don't allow non-determinism because it makes the system harder to test/certify, not because it's less secure. 2) Is CryptGenRandom certified? Yes - is that because they have a deterministic mode? Wikipeda makes it sound like this closed-design system seeds from system timings and other stuff, which would seem to make it non-deterministic as far as FIPS 140 testing is concerned. 3) Is determinism a good idea? See Debian OpenSSL fiasco. I have heard Nevada gaming commission regulations require non-determinism for obvious reasons. 4) What about VMs? Rolling back a deterministic RNG on those systems gives the same values unless/until you re-seed with something new to this iteration. Do those sound right? -- It asked me for my race, so I wrote in "human". -- The Beastie Boys My emails do not have attachments; it's a digital signature that your mail program doesn't understand. | http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/ If you are a spammer, please email j...@subspacefield.org to get blacklisted.
pgp3mbtjlj8Kf.pgp
Description: PGP signature