Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Theodore Y. Ts'o
Date:Wed, 13 Sep 2000 01:23:30 +0200 (CEST) From: Igmar Palsenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > No, not true. The mixing into the entropy pool uses a twisted LFSR, but > all outputs from the pool (to either /dev/random or /dev/urandom) > filters the output through SHA-1 as a

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Igmar Palsenberg
> No, not true. The mixing into the entropy pool uses a twisted LFSR, but > all outputs from the pool (to either /dev/random or /dev/urandom) > filters the output through SHA-1 as a whitener. The key here, though, > and what makes this fundamentally different from yarrow, is that since > we're

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Sandy Harris
"Theodore Y. Ts'o" wrote: > >Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 09:56:12 + >From: Pravir Chandra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >i agree that the yarrow generator does place some faith on the crypto >cipher and the accumulator uses a hash, but current /dev/random >places faith on a crc and

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Theodore Y. Ts'o
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 09:56:12 + From: Pravir Chandra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> i agree that the yarrow generator does place some faith on the crypto cipher and the accumulator uses a hash, but current /dev/random places faith on a crc and urandom uses a hash. No, not true. The

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Pravir Chandra
> I'm not a big fan of Yarrow, since it (in my opinion) places too much > faith in the crypto algorithms. It uses a pathetically small entropy > pool, and assumes that hash function will do the rest. Which is fine, > but that makes it a pseudo-RNG, or a crypto-RNG, and not really an > entropy

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Pravir Chandra
> Why? What's wrong with the current implementation. And more important > still: How well-known is Yarrow160A? I cannot find it in my copy of > [Schneier96], so it is probably not older than four years. much of yarrow-160a has been specified by kelsey himself in discussions with people at

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Theodore Y. Ts'o
Date:Mon, 11 Sep 2000 13:08:59 + From: Pravir Chandra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I've been working to change the implementation of /dev/random over to the Yarrow-160a algorithm created by Bruce Schneier and John Kelsey. We've been working on parallel development for Linux and

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Theodore Y. Ts'o
Date:Mon, 11 Sep 2000 13:08:59 + From: Pravir Chandra [EMAIL PROTECTED] I've been working to change the implementation of /dev/random over to the Yarrow-160a algorithm created by Bruce Schneier and John Kelsey. We've been working on parallel development for Linux and

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Pravir Chandra
Why? What's wrong with the current implementation. And more important still: How well-known is Yarrow160A? I cannot find it in my copy of [Schneier96], so it is probably not older than four years. much of yarrow-160a has been specified by kelsey himself in discussions with people at

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Pravir Chandra
I'm not a big fan of Yarrow, since it (in my opinion) places too much faith in the crypto algorithms. It uses a pathetically small entropy pool, and assumes that hash function will do the rest. Which is fine, but that makes it a pseudo-RNG, or a crypto-RNG, and not really an entropy

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Theodore Y. Ts'o
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 09:56:12 + From: Pravir Chandra [EMAIL PROTECTED] i agree that the yarrow generator does place some faith on the crypto cipher and the accumulator uses a hash, but current /dev/random places faith on a crc and urandom uses a hash. No, not true. The

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Sandy Harris
"Theodore Y. Ts'o" wrote: Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 09:56:12 + From: Pravir Chandra [EMAIL PROTECTED] i agree that the yarrow generator does place some faith on the crypto cipher and the accumulator uses a hash, but current /dev/random places faith on a crc and urandom

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Igmar Palsenberg
No, not true. The mixing into the entropy pool uses a twisted LFSR, but all outputs from the pool (to either /dev/random or /dev/urandom) filters the output through SHA-1 as a whitener. The key here, though, and what makes this fundamentally different from yarrow, is that since we're

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-12 Thread Theodore Y. Ts'o
Date:Wed, 13 Sep 2000 01:23:30 +0200 (CEST) From: Igmar Palsenberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] No, not true. The mixing into the entropy pool uses a twisted LFSR, but all outputs from the pool (to either /dev/random or /dev/urandom) filters the output through SHA-1 as a

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-11 Thread Marc Mutz
Pravir Chandra wrote: > > I've been working to change the implementation of /dev/random over to the > Yarrow-160a algorithm created by Bruce Schneier and John Kelsey. We've been > working on parallel development for Linux and NT so that the algorithms are > matching. The Yarrow 160A algorithm is

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-11 Thread Sandy Harris
Pravir Chandra wrote: > > I've been working to change the implementation of /dev/random over to the > Yarrow-160a algorithm created by Bruce Schneier and John Kelsey. For some old discussions on related topics, see: http://www.openpgp.net/random/ > We've been > working on parallel development

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-11 Thread Sandy Harris
Pravir Chandra wrote: I've been working to change the implementation of /dev/random over to the Yarrow-160a algorithm created by Bruce Schneier and John Kelsey. For some old discussions on related topics, see: http://www.openpgp.net/random/ We've been working on parallel development for

Re: Using Yarrow in /dev/random

2000-09-11 Thread Marc Mutz
Pravir Chandra wrote: I've been working to change the implementation of /dev/random over to the Yarrow-160a algorithm created by Bruce Schneier and John Kelsey. We've been working on parallel development for Linux and NT so that the algorithms are matching. The Yarrow 160A algorithm is a