[5171] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: depleting the random number generator
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James A. Donald)
Wed Jul 21 14:08:27 1999
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 08:35:33 -0700
To: Ben Laurie <ben@algroup.co.uk>, bram <bram@gawth.com>
From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Cc: cryptography <cryptography@c2.net>
In-Reply-To: <3793897E.7315D002@algroup.co.uk>
--
At 09:24 PM 7/19/99 +0100, Ben Laurie wrote:
> So what you are saying is that you'd be happy to run your server
> forever on an inital charge of 128 bits of entropy and no more
> randomness ever?
Yes, though I would probably prefer an initial charge of 1684 bits of
entropy. (the number of possible internal states of an RC4 state
machine used as a pseudo random number generator.)
One can acquire that much entropy by catching mouse moves while the
setup wizard is running.
--digsig
James A. Donald
6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
Jz81PFtIbEupfsmW1nl8Lc7TZa5xOjPv9rkwt3k4
4AxL7NSB+y+fd5GRQsKzuMrGusMga3Ea4aCFiinqS
