Re:Lemonade Stand
by thristian on Wednesday March 13, 2024 @11:10PM
(#39700231)
A little of column A, a little of column B.
Generally a key generator does not itself watch for mouse-movements, it just gets random noise from the OS. But the OS gets its random noise from a random number generator, and the random number generator needs to be seeded with genuine randomness. Some CPUs provide a hardware RNG, but older CPUs do not, and some OSs do not trust a hardware RNG implemented in opaque, un-auditable microcode, so they get their randomness from things like the difference between the CPU clock and real-time clock[1] or the relative timing of interrupts... such as those caused by mouse-movement or keyboard key presses.
Generally a key generator does not itself watch for mouse-movements, it just gets random noise from the OS. But the OS gets its random noise from a random number generator, and the random number generator needs to be seeded with genuine randomness. Some CPUs provide a hardware RNG, but older CPUs do not, and some OSs do not trust a hardware RNG implemented in opaque, un-auditable microcode, so they get their randomness from things like the difference between the CPU clock and real-time clock[1] or the relative timing of interrupts... such as those caused by mouse-movement or keyboard key presses.
[1]: https://www.finnie.org/software/twuewand/