Collecting entropy in headless systems
Roy M. Silvernail
roy at rant-central.com
Thu Aug 3 12:21:13 PDT 2006
Windows sucks. (but you knew that already) It has no /dev/random or
/dev/urandom, and I'm faced with a need to collect some good-quality
entropy for a crypto app. Adding to the merriment, the systems involved
will be semi-headless and are unlikely to have a hardware RNG. (e.g.
though they may have rodentia and keyboards, neither is likely to be in
use, and I can't require a HWRNG) All the entropy collectors I've seen
mentioned for Windows (and there aren't many... EGADS seems to be the
leading contender) use keyboard timing and mouse position as primary
sources.
I just need enough to seed a PRNG, but I also can't wait around forever to
collect it. What's a cpunk to do? (sorry, migrating to *nix isn't viable
in this case)
--
Roy M. Silvernail is roy at rant-central.com, and you're not
"Antelope Freeway, one sixty-fourth of a mile." - TFT
http://www.rant-central.com
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