"random" number seeds vs. Netscape
Ed Carp [khijol SysAdmin]
khijol!erc at cygnus.com
Tue Sep 26 06:29:20 PDT 1995
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> Very interesting. I wouldn't be too sure that a transmitted signal at a
> single frequency is the only signal that an opponent could use to bias your
> random numbers. How do you "test for randomness". I think that signal to
> noise arguments, phrased in terms of entropy, can protect you against
> unknown and unwanted signal. (Ironically you want a very low signal to
> noise ratio!) Perhaps you merely take n/(S/N) bits from the HRNG when you
> need n bits and run them thru MD5. Here S is the signal strength of the
> maximum plausible unwanted signal, and N is the noise of the diode.
I tested for randomness by looking at the distribution of random numbers
over the range I was drawing random numbers from. If it didn't look
random, it wasn't ;)
- --
Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp at linux.org, ecarp at netcom.com
214/993-3935 voicemail/pager
Finger ecarp at netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744 at anon.penet.fi
Q. What's the trouble with writing an MS-DOS program to emulate Clinton?
A. Figuring out what to do with the other 639K of memory.
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