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

[Chad Perrin]

On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 08:35:28PM -0600, Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> >Tell me, then -- what *is* the system entropy pool, and how do you think
> >it differs functionally from random seeds?
> 
> That's not the question.  You were previously asserting that /dev/random
> was just a PRNG fed by a seed.  It is not.  That is /dev/urandom.
> /dev/random directly exposes an entropy pool, in a cryptographically secure
> way, to the user.  It is not a PRNG using a seed in any way that I think
> the rest of us would agree fits the definition.
> 
> That's the point I think Jim is trying to make, and you are missing.

I'm not missing that.  You're just suggesting that somehow the fact
there's essentially a random seed for every single operation makes the
process different than using a limited pool of seeds, then repeating the
last operation or set of operations.  All that really changes, as I
understand it, is whether or not the process waits for more "randomness"
before proceeding.

Both /dev/random and /dev/urandom use the "entropy pool".  The difference
is that /dev/random uses it in a manner that provides stronger
"randomness" by refusing to continue if it runs out of "entropy".

. . . unless you know something about it that I don't.  Everything I've
read on it gives exactly that understanding, though.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Baltasar Gracian: "A wise man gets more from his enemies than a fool from
his friends."
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