Re: strengthening /dev/urandom

From: Mok-Kong Shen (mok-kong.shen_at_t-online.de)
Date: 08/20/04 

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 01:49:54 +0200

Tom St Denis wrote:
> Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote:

>>The point being that it is easy to make a good entropy estimator if
>>you understand the physics of your entropy source, and that you have
>
>
> Our point is what if I swap your coin with a weighted one [this argument
> works better with a die]?

How about then the case where the opponent intercepts
/dev/random and supplies bits of his own? Note that Macon
wrote the word 'understand', that implies that you know what
the situation (currently) really is. (That's one reason
why I consider a reliable software estimator to be hard to
realize.)

M. K. Shen

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