Re: [parisc-linux] HP-UX random number generator?

[Sandy Harris <sandy@storm.ca>]

"Peter A. Peterson II" wrote:
> 
> I'm awaiting the day when I can fool around with Linux on my E-45, but
> in the meantime, I'm trying to use it's tape drive to back up my
> traditional Linux boxen via piping a tarball through ssh.  However, ssh
> needs a random generator (like /dev/urandom/) and I don't know what an
> HP-UX equivalent might be, or how to go about installing one.
> 
Since you want to use it for crypto, this is a fairly difficult
problem. The numbers don't just need to have a nice distribution;
they have to be highly unpredictable, even to the cleverest, most
persistent and best-equipped opponent you might encounter.

The standard reference is RFC 1750.

A page with quite a lot of discussion of Linux /dev/random is at:
http://www.openpgp.net/random/index.html
There's a bunch more in Linux kernel mailing list archives.

Bruce Schneier and a few others have done quite a bit of research on
weaknesses of random number generators and  designed a generator called
Yarrow. Source (Windows only last I looked) is freely available from
counterpane.com.