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From: daw@taverner.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
Newsgroups: isaac.lists.linux-kernel
Subject: Re: Fortuna
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 01:28:40 +0000 (UTC)
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linux wrote:
>/dev/urandom depends on the strength of the crypto primitives.
>/dev/random does not.  All it needs is a good uniform hash.

That's not at all clear.  I'll go farther: I think it is unlikely
to be true.

If you want to think about cryptographic primitives being arbitrarily
broken, I think there will be scenarios where /dev/random is insecure.

As for what you mean by "good uniform hash", I think you'll need to
be a bit more precise.

>Do a bit of reading on the subject of "unicity distance".

Yes, I've read Shannon's original paper on the subject, as well
as many other treatments.

I stand by my comments above.
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