Re: Questions on FIPS140-2 and RNG tests

From: David Wagner (daw_at_taverner.cs.berkeley.edu)
Date: 05/20/04 

Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 05:38:11 +0000 (UTC)

Stephan Neuhaus wrote:
>I know many software developers who use /dev/urandom instead
>of /dev/random, because /dev/random blocks when it thinks that it hasn't
>enough entropy.

That's not comparable. Using /dev/urandom is (usually)
the right thing. Using /dev/random is usually wrong.

It's an unfortunate fact that the names of /dev/{,u}random
are poorly chosen, in a way that tends to mislead many developers about which
device should be used for most situations.

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