Michael Brandt Handler says:
[1] Read a pseudo-random section from the CD-ROM. Unless you catch the blank end of a sector, you should obtain random data (this is one obvious problem with this method).
How do you pick the random section in the first place? Oh, I see, we use a random number generator! Ahem. Its very hard to determine if a pseudrandom number generator is "good enough" for cryptographic purposes. Many generators that look "good enough" for doing normal work fail miserably for cryptography. If one is using, say, a one-time pad, one has a need to generate a large number of truly random numbers quickly. Hacked up schemes usually don't cut it when thats the case. If you only need a few bits, you might as well use a non-deterministic process outside of the program's control, like a user tapping a key. However, for work requiring significant numbers of bits, ad-hoc methods fail miserably.
Place an *audio* CD in the CD-ROM drive. Most CD-ROM drives know about audio discs now, and I believe they can be made to read the binary waveform data even if they don't understand the Red Book audio format.
If you are going to use this for cryptography, is an ancient cipher known as a book cipher, updated to use CD-ROMs. This is NOT a secure way to encrypt things. Although its probably better than most silly schemes people come up with, it isn't as good as real cryptosystems, and they are available, so why use such a hack?
What do you all think?
I think its good that you are evincing enthusiasm, but I really think you ought to learn more cryptography. Remember, most obvious ideas have already been thought of -- others are often as bright as you are, and have come before you. Ask yourself why someone else hasn't done it before proposing things. Perry