LXer: New "Jitter Entropy" RNG Proposed For Linux

LXer · 02-09-2013, 08:52 PM

Published at LXer:

The Linux kernel RNG implementation for providing random numbers has worked quite well for its years in use. However, a new jitter entropy generator implementation has been proposed that is capable of providing 100 kB/s throughput of randomness...

Read More...

H_TeXMeX_H · 02-10-2013, 02:26 AM

Interesting, but I wonder how good it actually is ... I might test it.

H_TeXMeX_H · 02-10-2013, 05:02 AM

It is easy to test as it has a userspace utility ATM. It passes all tests that I threw at it. This includes my own test based on ent (the best one I have), as well as dieharder, ent, visual inspection, and various compression tests (LZMA).

I will be looking into the possible attacks against it, but I'm not an expert, so I won't be much help.

H_TeXMeX_H · 02-10-2013, 05:28 AM

The mailing list has a valid concern:
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/li...2.1/00731.html

I think more cryptographic mangling using say a fast, secure hash would eliminate most attack vectors.

You should not pride yourself in not using cryptographic mangling, because it's actually a good thing.