[12977] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Via puts RNGs on new processors
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Frantz)
Tue Apr 8 14:02:54 2003
X-Original-To: cryptography@wasabisystems.com
X-Original-To: cryptography@wasabisystems.com
In-Reply-To: <200304081639.h38GdI206782@medusa01.cs.auckland.ac.nz>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 10:49:01 -0700
To: pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz (Peter Gutmann),
cryptography@wasabisystems.com
From: Bill Frantz <frantz@pwpconsult.com>
At 9:39 AM -0700 4/8/03, Peter Gutmann wrote:
>"Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com> writes:
>
>>The new Via Technologies x86 clone processors appear to have on-board
>>cryptography support, including a hardware random number generator.
>
>It's not really "including a hardware RNG", that appears to be the sum total
>of the crypto support, at least as far as anyone's been able to find out. The
>exact details of using the hardware RNG are only available under NDA from Via,
>although anyone who can somehow get their hands on an appropriate Nehemiah-
>core C3 to test with and the Cryptography Research tech report should be able
>to put something together.
I wonder if the instruction to read the RNG is privileged? (Certain
systems want to be able to control/intercept all inputs to a process so
they can reproducibly rerun it later. If the RNG is not privileged, then
these techniques can't be used on this processor.)
Cheers - Bill
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