[133692] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Lava lamp random number generator made useful?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Denker)
Sun Sep 21 14:51:02 2008
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:22:18 -0700
From: John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>
To: IanG <iang@systemics.com>
CC: Jerry Leichter <leichter_jerrold@emc.com>,
Cryptography <cryptography@metzdowd.com>
In-Reply-To: <48D4A1C2.3010908@systemics.com>
On 09/20/2008 12:09 AM, IanG wrote:
> Does anyone know of a cheap USB random number source?
Is $7.59 cheap enough?
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-280B&cat=GDT
For that you get a USB audio adapter with mike jack, and
then you can run turbid(tm) to produce high-quality randomness.
Reference, including analytical paper plus code:
http://www.av8n.com/turbid/
> As a meandering comment, it would be extremely good for us if we had
> cheap pocket random number sources of arguable quality [1].
If the above is not good enough, please explain.
> I've often thought that if we had an open source hardware design of
> a USB random number generator ... that cost a few pennies to add
> onto any other USB toy ... then we could ask the manufacturers to
> throw it in for laughs. Something like a small mountable disk that
> returns randoms on every block read, so the interface is trivial.
I think the turbid solution is much better than a disk.
-- Unlimited long-term capacity.
-- Perfect forward secrecy, unlike a disk, unless you do a
really good job of erasing each block after use.
-- Perfect secrecy in the other direction, period.
> Then, when it comes time to generate those special keys, we could
> simply plug it in, run it, clean up the output in software and use
> it. Hey presto, all those nasty software and theoretical
> difficulties evaporate.
If the above is not good enough, please explain.
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