[117586] in Cypherpunks
Re: Build a better OTP?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (lcs Mixmaster Remailer)
Mon Sep 6 17:41:30 1999
Date: 6 Sep 1999 21:20:16 -0000
Message-ID: <19990906212016.30353.qmail@nym.alias.net>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
Reply-To: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
> >> Has anyone designed a true random number generator that runs at high
> >> speed? Something that could fill a CD or DVD in a reasonable amount of
> >> time?
>
> >Yes, there's one out by a little company called Intel. You might have
> >heard of them.
>
> Yes but is it trustworthy?
Your naive paranoia would be charming if it weren't so tiresome.
The basic design is sound; see http://www.cryptography.com/intelRNG.pdf
for a review by Ben Jun and Paul Kocher, two of the smartest guys around
when it comes to real-world implementations of crypto technology:
Cryptographically, we believe that the Intel RNG is strong and that
it is unlikely that any computationally feasible test will be found
to distinguish data produced by Intel's RNG library from output from
a perfect RNG. As a result, we believe that the RNG is by far the
most reliable source of secure random data available in the PC.
As for the hoary old cypherpunk concern about hardware backdoors, how
do you know your CPU is trustworthy? How about your memory chips, or
your ethernet chip? How do you know your motherboard doesn't have a
built-in snoop chip, or your keyboard?
Paranoia is fun but try joining the real world once in a while. Come back
when you've designed your own CPU chip so you know you can trust it. Oh,
yeah, let us know when you've built your own fab, too. Good cypherpunks
would never settle for anything less, right?
