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Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by bloopernova on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @07:15AM (#16696835)
Do you have any recommendations for other, high quality, sources of entropy?
Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by zuzun on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @08:37AM (#16697194)
Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by Kagerjay on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @08:16AM (#16697085)
Cloudflare uses a wall full of lava lamps, theres a tom scott video on it

https://youtu.be/1cUUfMeOijg

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by lathiat on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @07:21AM (#16696852)
In most cases you can use the Intel CPU included RNG by installed rng-tools to feed it into the kernel entropy pool

Otherwise I’d be happier using a similarly priced USB tool that is at least designed for the job such as the ChaosKey which is also open hardware and firmware and has a Linux driver in tree

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by paulie_a on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @08:09AM (#16697056)
With all the issues with Intel, I would be weary of trusting their implementation.
Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by jnbiche on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @09:31AM (#16697467)
It's "wary". The word "weary" means tired.

Edit: Just curious: are people downvoting because they disagree with my proposed spelling, or because they don't like the correction? Please let me know so I can integrate this knowledge into future comments.

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by dchest on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @09:12AM (#16697388)
Analysis of Intel’s Ivy Bridge Digital Random Number Generator

http://www.rambus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Intel_TRNG_...

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by mtreis86 on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @09:02AM (#16697344)
A geiger counter next to an ionization smoke detector should have some entropy, though I don't know how high the quality would be.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14209 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0EF-005S-00...

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by jk2323 on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @07:22AM (#16696860)
Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by Tomte on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @08:17AM (#16697088)
No. The main problem is not the type of physical process, but the lack of any detection of failures.

Hardware fails. Can you reliably detect that? The board you linked to cannot at all. Most HWRNGs can, but only partially.

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by widea on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @11:37AM (#16698530)
Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by squarefoot on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @08:22AM (#16697116)
Thermal and other noise by analog electronic parts (resistors, transistors pushed to high gain etc.) comes to mind. They are much safer compared to an online service, app or a piece of hardware one doesn't have the source for, but I have no idea if that noise is good once sampled to be used in cryptography or other non-analog fields.
Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by DanBC on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @08:41AM (#16697221)
You have to sample the noise, and deskew it, and check the components are still operating. This is where the errors normally lie.

It's probably a fun project to try, but I'd be wary of using it for cryptography if only because we have other better methods.

I collected a bunch of links a while ago. Here they are, I don't know if these are still working or interesting, but they might be useful: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6060636

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by mikevin on Friday March 30, 2018 @01:48PM (#16718235)
Thanks for this! I was looking for something like this to play with.
Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by DamonHD on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @08:07AM (#16697039)
In general, use a pool and worry less for most purposes as long as some of them are good enough.

An old project of mine:

http://random.hd.org/

It was good enough to use for a financial application when whitened / XORed with system sources.

Re:RTL-entropy: Uses RTL-SDR to turn a DVB-T dongle into an ... by howard941 on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @10:22AM (#16697839)
If on an embedded system the low order bit of an infrequently sampled ADC input might be acceptable.