On Tue, 19 Sep 1995 09:04:29 -0700 "Erik E. Fair" wrote: --------
Just an idle thought: it might be possible to do a probabalistic verification of a RNG by sampling it over some number of samples, and statistically analyzing the sample space. This would be analysis under the model of "RNG as black box" as opposed to (or rather, if you're smart, in addition to) code inspection & review. Any statisticians among us?
Erik Fair
But statistical tests of randomness alone do not make a good RNG. At least, not for cryptographic use. A cryptographically secure RNG is also unpredictable, i.e., computationally unfeasible to predict the next random bit will be given the algorithm, and not reliably reproduced, i.e., multiple runs with the exact same input do not generate the same sequence. -Chris =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Christopher Nielsen UCA&L System and Network Administrator Buffalo, New York (nielsenc@upgrade.com) #include <disclaimer.h>