Randomness Requirements for Security
2005
Security systems are built on strong cryptographic algorithms that
foil pattern analysis attempts. However, the security of these systems
is dependent on generating secret quantities for passwords,
cryptographic keys, and similar quantities. The use of pseudo-random
processes to generate secret quantities can result in pseudo-security.
A sophisticated attacker may find it easier to reproduce the
environment that produced the secret quantities and to search the
resulting small set of possibilities than to locate the quantities in
the whole of the potential number space. Choosing random quantities
to foil a resourceful and motivated adversary is surprisingly
difficult. This document points out many pitfalls in using poor
entropy sources or traditional pseudo-random number generation
techniques for generating such quantities. It recommends the use of
truly random hardware techniques and shows that the existing hardware
on many systems can be used for this purpose. It provides suggestions
to ameliorate the problem when a hardware solution is not available,
and it gives examples of how large such quantities need to be for some
applications. This document specifies an Internet Best Current
Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and
suggestions for improvements.
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