Linked Questions
11 questions linked to/from Feeding /dev/random entropy pool?
2
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Why is /dev/random so slow on Linux? [duplicate]
If it's true you only need about 128 bits of entropy to fuel enough data forever, why is it that /dev/random is so slow? My system has uptime of 214 days!
Is it really only gathering .000000001 bits ...
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204
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4
answers
62k
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Is a rand from /dev/urandom secure for a login key?
Lets say I want to create a cookie for a user. Would simply generating a 1024 bit string by using /dev/urandom, and checking if it already exists (looping until I get a unique one) suffice?
Should I ...
- 5,154
30
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5
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What do I need to configure, to make sure my software uses /dev/urandom?
When setting up a server, what configuration changes do I need to make sure that all of the software uses /dev/urandom instead of /dev/random?
Some servers don't have much entropy in the entropy pool ...
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10
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3
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2k
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Allowing the public to generate a CSR from your private key
As a hosting provider, I'd like to make the process of generating a certificate for a customer's domain as convenient as possible.
I was pondering creating a webpage where anyone could:
generate a ...
- 201
6
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3
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3k
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Pseudo Random Generator is not initialized from the (entropy pool)?
The RHEL5 manuals state that /dev/urandom will use the entropy pool until it's exhausted, and then it will resort to a fall-back pseudo-random algorithm, so that it will never block.
But when ...
10
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3
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1k
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Is it worth augmenting /dev/random entropy in software?
Modern Linux systems, especially headless virtuals, often have shallow /dev/random entropy pools, which can cause software to block or fail to run (e.g. Tripwire in FIPS mode)
While many agree /dev/...
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12
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2
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How is the available entropy in /dev/random calculated (or estimated)?
It seems (to a non-expert) that /dev/random is acclaimed to be useable as a source of pure random data. However, I am curious as to the analysis of the file /dev/random.
/dev/random is a collection ...
Jonathan Gallagher
3
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1
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How can I increase /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail
I have access to genuine random numbers - random.org, for example.
I have a number of processes using /dev/random and my value for /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail is 143, which is pretty low.
...
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3
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1
answer
2k
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How negative are virtual machines (vms) to /dev/urandom?
I looked at the questions here and here.
This then piqued my interest as I've recently been involved with looking into FIPS compliance, and in my vm environment /dev/urandom compliance testing ...
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11
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2
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Can I use hardware random number generation on my computer? Am I already using it?
A lot of computer security depends on encryption: SSL connections, TCP packet sequencing, encrypted files, etc. These depend on random number generation to ensure that attackers can't guess the ...
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1
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1
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Feeding entropy pool with my own data [duplicate]
Let's state that I have a huge bunch of truly unpredictable random data in file "random.bin". The random data has been created outside of my system and has been securely transfered into my ...
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