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Entropy sources for rngd...

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bmearns...
Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:30 pm
Guest
I want to use rngd to increase my entropy pool for use with GnuPG, but
I don't have a hardware random device. I've seen a lot of references
to using /dev/urandom as the input source for rngd, which claim that
rngd's randomness test is sufficient for ensuring that the entropy
pool remains random. But there's something that really doesn't sit
well about that for me. Can anyone offer informed insight on this?

Thanks,
-Brian
 
Randy Yates...
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:56 pm
Guest
bmearns <mearns.b at (no spam) gmail.com> writes:

Quote:
I want to use rngd to increase my entropy pool for use with GnuPG, but
I don't have a hardware random device. I've seen a lot of references
to using /dev/urandom as the input source for rngd, which claim that
rngd's randomness test is sufficient for ensuring that the entropy
pool remains random. But there's something that really doesn't sit
well about that for me. Can anyone offer informed insight on this?

Well, for sure you should use /dev/random rather than urandom.

Otherwise if it's that critical, you need specialized hardware.
--
Randy Yates % "So now it's getting late,
Digital Signal Labs % and those who hesitate
mailto://yates at (no spam) ieee.org % got no one..."
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com % 'Waterfall', *Face The Music*, ELO
 
 
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