[Cryptography] Random number generation influenced, HW RNG

Jerry Leichter leichter at lrw.com
Wed Sep 11 17:56:07 EDT 2013


On Sep 11, 2013, at 1:22 PM, Perry E. Metzger <perry at piermont.com> wrote:
>> Let us consider that source of colored noise with which we are most 
>> familiar:  The human voice.  Efforts to realistically simulate a
>> human voice have not been very successful.  The most successful
>> approach has been the ransom note approach....
> I don't think this is true....
It isn't.  See http://www.kth.se/en/csc/forskning/small-visionary-projects/tidigare-svp/fa-en-konstgjord-rost-att-lata-som-en-riktig-manniska-1.379755

On the underlying issue of whether a software model of a hardware RNG could be accurate enough for ... some not-quite-specified purpose:  Gate-level simulation of circuits is a simple off-the-shelf technology.  If the randomness is coming from below that, you need more accurate simulations, but *no one* builds a chip these days without building a detailed physical model running in a simulator first.  The cost of getting it wrong would be way too large.  Some levels of the simulation use public information; at some depth, you probably get into process details that would be closely held.

Since it's not clear exactly how you would use this detailed model to, say, audit a real hardware generator, it's not clear just how detailed a model you would need.
  
                                                        -- Jerry



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