On the "randomness" of DNS

[Pierre-Evariste Dagand]

>  But just how GREAT is that, really? Well, we don'
>  t know. Why? Because there isn't actually a way test for randomness. Your
> DNS resolver could be using some easily predicted random number generator
> like, say, a linear congruential one, as is common in the rand() library
> function, but DNS-OARC would still say it was GREAT. Believe them when they
> say it isn't GREAT, though!

Well, they are some tests to judge the "quality" of a random number
generator. The best known being the Diehard tests:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diehard_tests
http://stat.fsu.edu/pub/diehard/

For sure, these tests might be an overkill here. Also, there must be
some tests in the Art of Computer Programming too but I don't have it
at hand right now (shame on me).

I don't see the point of evaluating the quality of a random number
generator by statistical tests. But I might be wrong, though.

Regards,

-- 
Pierre-Evariste DAGAND

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