Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-03-15 Thread Peter Gutmann
Dan Kaminsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >For example, the following construction: > >Start with an RNG. Retrieve 64K of "random data". Assume there might be a >bias somewhere in there, but that at least 256 bits are good. SHA-256 the >data. AES-256 encrypt the data with the result from the SHA

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-21 Thread Simon Josefsson
David Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Crawford Nathan-HMGT87 writes: >>One of the problems with the Linux random number generator >>is that it happens to be quite slow, especially if you need a lot of >>data. > > /dev/urandom is blindingly fast. For most applications, that's > all you need.

RE: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-21 Thread Alexander Klimov
On Wed, 13 Feb 2008, Dave Korn wrote: > On 11 February 2008 17:37, Crawford Nathan-HMGT87 wrote: > > I'm wondering if they've considered the possibility of EMI skewing > > the operation of the device, or other means of causing the device > > to genearate "less than completely random" numbers. > >

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-21 Thread Peter Gutmann
"Steven M. Bellovin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Remember the Clipper chip? Clipper (or more specifically Capstone, via the Fortezza card) is a great example of the NSA's sound engineering approach to generating random data [0]. They used a physical randomness source of an unpublished type, pres

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-15 Thread Dan Kaminsky
Peter Gutmann wrote: > "David G. Koontz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > >> Military silicon already has RNG on chip (e.g. AIM, Advanced INFOSEC Machine, >> Motorola), >> > > That's only a part of it. Military silicon has a hardware RNG on chip > alongside a range of other things because

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-15 Thread Steven M. Bellovin
On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:38:49 -0800 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > - Original Message - > > From: "Pat Farrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: > > Subject: Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG > > Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:40:19 -0500 &

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-14 Thread Dirk-Willem van Gulik
On Feb 10, 2008, at 4:02 AM, Peter Gutmann wrote: The device generates random numbers at a data rate of 2.0 megabits a second, according to Toshiba in a paper presented at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) here. I've always wondered why RNG speed is such a big deal f

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-14 Thread alex
> - Original Message - > From: "Pat Farrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: > Subject: Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG > Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:40:19 -0500 > > > Perry E. Metzger wrote: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peter Gutmann) writes: >

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-14 Thread Peter Gutmann
"David G. Koontz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Military silicon already has RNG on chip (e.g. AIM, Advanced INFOSEC Machine, >Motorola), That's only a part of it. Military silicon has a hardware RNG on chip alongside a range of other things because they know full well that you can't trust only a

Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-14 Thread David Wagner
Crawford Nathan-HMGT87 writes: >One of the problems with the Linux random number generator >is that it happens to be quite slow, especially if you need a lot of >data. /dev/urandom is blindingly fast. For most applications, that's all you need. (Of course there are many Linux applications that u

RE: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-14 Thread Dave Korn
On 11 February 2008 17:37, Crawford Nathan-HMGT87 wrote: >> EE Times: Toshiba tips random-number generator IC >> >> SAN FRANCISCO -- Toshiba Corp. has claimed a major breakthrough in >> the field of security technology: It has devised the world's >> highest-performance physical random-numbe

RE: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-14 Thread Leichter, Jerry
| > SAN FRANCISCO -- Toshiba Corp. has claimed a major breakthrough in | > the field of security technology: It has devised the world's | > highest-performance physical random-number generator (RNG) | > circuit. | > | > The device generates random numbers at a data rate of 2.0 megabits |

RE: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-13 Thread Crawford Nathan-HMGT87
>EE Times: Toshiba tips random-number generator IC > > SAN FRANCISCO -- Toshiba Corp. has claimed a major breakthrough in > the field of security technology: It has devised the world's > highest-performance physical random-number generator (RNG) > circuit. > > The device generates random

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-13 Thread Peter Gutmann
Danilo Gligoroski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >At 04:02 AM 2/10/2008, Peter Gutmann wrote: >>"Perry E. Metzger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> >><\snip >>So your potential market for this is people running Monte Carlo simulations >>who don't like PRNGs. Seems a bit of a limited market... > >I thin

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-13 Thread Peter Gutmann
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ("Hal Finney") writes: >When the Intel RNG came out several years ago, built into the bus controller >chipset, it was not widely accepted by the cryptographic community due to >fears of back doors or internal weaknesses. A generally positive analysis by >Cryptographic Research (h

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-13 Thread David G. Koontz
Hal Finney wrote: > > Looking at the block diagram for the new Toshiba circuit, and comparing > with the Intel design, one concern I have is with attacks on the device > via external electromagnetic fields which could modulate current flows > and potentially influence internal random numbers. Inte

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-13 Thread Pat Farrell
Perry E. Metzger wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peter Gutmann) writes: I've always wondered why RNG speed is such a big deal for anything but a few highly specialised applications. Perhaps it isn't, but any hardware RNG is probably better than none for many apps, and they've managed to put the whol

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-10 Thread Perry E. Metzger
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peter Gutmann) writes: > I've always wondered why RNG speed is such a big deal for anything but a few > highly specialised applications. Perhaps it isn't, but any hardware RNG is probably better than none for many apps, and they've managed to put the whole thing in a quite smal

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-10 Thread Bill Stewart
At 07:02 PM 2/9/2008, Peter Gutmann wrote: I've always wondered why RNG speed is such a big deal for anything but a few highly specialised applications. For security use you've got two options: 1. Use it with standard security protocols, in which case you need all of 128 or so bits every now

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-10 Thread "Hal Finney"
When the Intel RNG came out several years ago, built into the bus controller chipset, it was not widely accepted by the cryptographic community due to fears of back doors or internal weaknesses. A generally positive analysis by Cryptographic Research (http://www.cryptography.com/intelRNG.pdf) faile

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-10 Thread Danilo Gligoroski
At 04:02 AM 2/10/2008, Peter Gutmann wrote: "Perry E. Metzger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: <\snip So your potential market for this is people running Monte Carlo simulations who don't like PRNGs. Seems a bit of a limited market... I think that the market is a little bit bigger than just appli

Re: Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-09 Thread Peter Gutmann
"Perry E. Metzger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >EE Times: Toshiba tips random-number generator IC > > SAN FRANCISCO -- Toshiba Corp. has claimed a major breakthrough in > the field of security technology: It has devised the world's > highest-performance physical random-number generator (RNG)

Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

2008-02-09 Thread Perry E. Metzger
EE Times: Toshiba tips random-number generator IC SAN FRANCISCO -- Toshiba Corp. has claimed a major breakthrough in the field of security technology: It has devised the world's highest-performance physical random-number generator (RNG) circuit. The device generates random nu