[Cryptography] RAM memories as one source of entropy

[Bill Frantz]

On 2/7/14 at 4:37 AM, Joachim at Strombergson.com (Joachim 
Strömbergson) wrote:

>For external entropy source PN avalanche noise is a solution. The one
>problem I see with this source is that it requires analog circuitry as
>well as A/D conversion to achieve the desired effect. This is harder to
>build and needs to be tuned to work properly.

One friend who has looked into quantum secure random numbers 
says that there are many good sources of quantum secure numbers, 
but all the hardware he has seen that actually reads them out 
into a computer has had problems, sometimes fatal. Strong nearby 
electric fields can overwhelm the quantum noise to give but one example.

You might look for a way to allow the user of your HSM to 
provide "random" input and include it along with your internal 
sources. This feature will keep those of us in the "the more 
sources, the merrier" camp happy.

Cheers - Bill

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