Boston Linux & UNIX was originally founded in 1994 as part of The Boston Computer Society. We meet on the third Wednesday of each month at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Building E51.

BLU Discuss list archive


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[Discuss] How do I add entropy?



On Sat, Sep 06, 2014 at 05:50:13PM -0400, Bill Horne wrote:
> On 9/6/2014 4:17 PM, Bill Ricker wrote:
> >On Sat, Sep 6, 2014 at 4:00 PM, Bill Horne<bill at horne.net>  wrote:
> >>2. Does "doing other things" on the system contribute to the entropy pool? In
> >>other words, does Linux acquire randomness by monitoring the time between
> >>keystrokes or mouse movements or similar "normal" events?
> >
> >Yes. Noise-bits from timing of Mouse, keyboard, and disk access are
> >likely all to be harvested.
> >
> 
> Thanks, that's nice to know.
> 
> Is there any way to speed the process? Short of putting up an
> antenna and counting bits of static, how can I accumulate random
> bits more quickly that by typing or moving the mouse?
> 
> Long story short, must I tough it out and copy "War and Peace" by
> hand in order to get enough  entropy for a new key?

Run something disk intensive? Play a game? Go read usenet?

Or you can buy a USB key with a hardware random number source on
it. http://www.entropykey.co.uk/ among others.

-dsr-



BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities.

Valid HTML 4.01! Valid CSS!



Boston Linux & Unix / webmaster@blu.org