FIPS Object Module 2.0 - Compliance with 186-3

[John Foley]

According to the NIST web site, the 2.0 FIPS Object Module claims 
compliance for FIPS 186-3 using the "Extra Random Bits" method for EC 
public key generation.  This is taken from:

http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cavp/documents/dss/ecdsaval.html#270
The extra random bits method is defined in FIPS 186-3 Appendix B.4.1.  
After inspecting EC_KEY_generate_key(), it's not clear how the 
requirements in appendix B.4.1 have been met.  The following code from 
EC_KEY_generate_key() appears to be used to generate a random number to 
be used as the private key.

    do
        if (!BN_rand_range(priv_key, order))
            goto err;
    while (BN_is_zero(priv_key));

Can someone explain how this complies with appendix B.4.1, which states 
an additional 64 bits of random data should be generated when deriving 
the key?

Thank you.


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