[NCLUG] My attempts using /dev/random...

[Chad Perrin]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 01:09:26AM -0600, Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> >Unfortunately, the harsh truth is that both /dev/random and /dev/urandom
> >are flawed.  They're PRNGs -- they do not provide *true* random numbers.
> 
> /dev/random on Linux is *NOT* simply a PRNG.  Which is why it took nearly a
> day to gather enough entropy for 1.6MB worth of /dev/random output.
> See the comments at the top of the /dev/random driver source for
> information about how it collects entropy, or it's approximation of it.

The reason it took so long involved collecting seed data.  Whether or not
you consider it a PRNG really depends on whether you consider the number
generating algorithm to qualify something as a PRNG, regardless of
seeding behavior.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Rudy Giuliani: "You have free speech so I can be heard."
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