Re:Cloudflare uses lava lamps as a random number generator
by Chaebixi on Friday August 18, 2017 @03:18PM
(#15048976)
So they created a giant side-channel by putting their entropy-source next to a public window?
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Re:Cloudflare uses lava lamps as a random number generator
by CorvusCrypto on Friday August 18, 2017 @05:39PM
(#15049958)
I'm guessing they use this alongside CSPRNGs. Would make sense given the theorem that states any random number XORed with even highly-ordered input maintains its entropy.
Re:Cloudflare uses lava lamps as a random number generator
by londons_explore on Saturday August 19, 2017 @03:50AM
(#15052234)
There are lots of people in the crypto world who have serious issues with XORing random sources together.
I haven't yet seen a good argument why it's a bad idea, and part of me thinks it might be a way to get more software using "rdrand" or other insecure sources unmodified.
Re:Cloudflare uses lava lamps as a random number generator
by CorvusCrypto on Saturday August 19, 2017 @09:03PM
(#15056438)
I think the bad idea stigma stems from people XORing from the same source. That totally is a bad idea, but if two sources are wholly independent, the maximum entropy in the combined systems is maintained.
To the people that just say it's never a good idea and scoff at any reasoning I'd remind them about OTPs. They are a special case related to this principle of XORing two independent sources together where only one input is random and it is proven mathematically to work.
Re:Cloudflare uses lava lamps as a random number generator
by CodeWriter23 on Friday August 18, 2017 @04:39PM
(#15049548)
Pretty sure an attacker would have to observe the array from the same point of perspective as the camera to mount a successful side channel attack.