Re: Intel 810 Random Number Generator

From: Helge Hafting (helgehaf@idb.hist.no)
Date: Tue Jan 25 2000 - 03:15:24 EST


> Controlling a thermal signature might be difficult, but making a
> backdoor at the chipset or even BIOS level is more feasible.
>
> Paranoid yes, but it pays to be overparanoid when dealing /dev/random
> and similar
>
> Jeff
>
So we can't trust the generator, so we can't
get a trustable estimate for its randomness. But we assume
there is some randomness to be had.

The cure is simple - mix in data from that RNG, but assume
no entropy from it. This won't throw off the
entropy estimate, but we'll get whatever entropy the device
is capable of.

Someone may analyze the thing and get a better (but
conservative) entropy estimate later, and get beter performance.

Helge Hafting

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 31 2000 - 21:00:14 EST