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Obsoleted by:4086 INFORMATIONAL
Network Working Group                                   D. Eastlake, 3rdRequest for Comments: 1750                                           DECCategory: Informational                                       S. Crocker                                                               Cybercash                                                             J. Schiller                                                                     MIT                                                           December 1994Randomness Recommendations for SecurityStatus of this Memo   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of   this memo is unlimited.Abstract   Security systems today are built on increasingly strong cryptographic   algorithms that foil pattern analysis attempts. However, the security   of these systems is dependent on generating secret quantities for   passwords, cryptographic keys, and similar quantities.  The use of   pseudo-random processes to generate secret quantities can result in   pseudo-security.  The sophisticated attacker of these security   systems may find it easier to reproduce the environment that produced   the secret quantities, searching the resulting small set of   possibilities, than to locate the quantities in the whole of the   number space.   Choosing random quantities to foil a resourceful and motivated   adversary is surprisingly difficult.  This paper points out many   pitfalls in using traditional pseudo-random number generation   techniques for choosing such quantities.  It recommends the use of   truly random hardware techniques and shows that the existing hardware   on many systems can be used for this purpose.  It provides   suggestions to ameliorate the problem when a hardware solution is not   available.  And it gives examples of how large such quantities need   to be for some particular applications.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 1]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994Acknowledgements   Comments on this document that have been incorporated were received   from (in alphabetic order) the following:        David M. Balenson (TIS)        Don Coppersmith (IBM)        Don T. Davis (consultant)        Carl Ellison (Stratus)        Marc Horowitz (MIT)        Christian Huitema (INRIA)        Charlie Kaufman (IRIS)        Steve Kent (BBN)        Hal Murray (DEC)        Neil Haller (Bellcore)        Richard Pitkin (DEC)        Tim Redmond (TIS)        Doug Tygar (CMU)Table of Contents1. Introduction...........................................32. Requirements...........................................43. Traditional Pseudo-Random Sequences....................54. Unpredictability.......................................74.1 Problems with Clocks and Serial Numbers...............74.2 Timing and Content of External Events................84.3 The Fallacy of Complex Manipulation..................84.4 The Fallacy of Selection from a Large Database.......95. Hardware for Randomness...............................105.1 Volume Required......................................105.2 Sensitivity to Skew..................................105.2.1 Using Stream Parity to De-Skew.....................115.2.2 Using Transition Mappings to De-Skew...............125.2.3 Using FFT to De-Skew...............................135.2.4 Using Compression to De-Skew.......................135.3 Existing Hardware Can Be Used For Randomness.........145.3.1 Using Existing Sound/Video Input...................145.3.2 Using Existing Disk Drives.........................146. Recommended Non-Hardware Strategy.....................146.1 Mixing Functions.....................................156.1.1 A Trivial Mixing Function..........................156.1.2 Stronger Mixing Functions..........................166.1.3 Diff-Hellman as a Mixing Function..................176.1.4 Using a Mixing Function to Stretch Random Bits.....176.1.5 Other Factors in Choosing a Mixing Function........186.2 Non-Hardware Sources of Randomness...................196.3 Cryptographically Strong Sequences...................19Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 2]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 19946.3.1 Traditional Strong Sequences.......................206.3.2 The Blum Blum Shub Sequence Generator..............217. Key Generation Standards..............................227.1 US DoD Recommendations for Password Generation.......237.2 X9.17 Key Generation.................................238. Examples of Randomness Required.......................248.1  Password Generation.................................248.2 A Very High Security Cryptographic Key...............258.2.1 Effort per Key Trial...............................258.2.2 Meet in the Middle Attacks.........................268.2.3 Other Considerations...............................269. Conclusion............................................2710. Security Considerations..............................27   References...............................................28   Authors' Addresses.......................................301. Introduction   Software cryptography is coming into wider use.  Systems like   Kerberos, PEM, PGP, etc. are maturing and becoming a part of the   network landscape [PEM].  These systems provide substantial   protection against snooping and spoofing.  However, there is a   potential flaw.  At the heart of all cryptographic systems is the   generation of secret, unguessable (i.e., random) numbers.   For the present, the lack of generally available facilities for   generating such unpredictable numbers is an open wound in the design   of cryptographic software.  For the software developer who wants to   build a key or password generation procedure that runs on a wide   range of hardware, the only safe strategy so far has been to force   the local installation to supply a suitable routine to generate   random numbers.  To say the least, this is an awkward, error-prone   and unpalatable solution.   It is important to keep in mind that the requirement is for data that   an adversary has a very low probability of guessing or determining.   This will fail if pseudo-random data is used which only meets   traditional statistical tests for randomness or which is based on   limited range sources, such as clocks.  Frequently such random   quantities are determinable by an adversary searching through an   embarrassingly small space of possibilities.   This informational document suggests techniques for producing random   quantities that will be resistant to such attack.  It recommends that   future systems include hardware random number generation or provide   access to existing hardware that can be used for this purpose.  It   suggests methods for use if such hardware is not available.  And it   gives some estimates of the number of random bits required for sampleEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 3]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   applications.2. Requirements   Probably the most commonly encountered randomness requirement today   is the user password. This is usually a simple character string.   Obviously, if a password can be guessed, it does not provide   security.  (For re-usable passwords, it is desirable that users be   able to remember the password.  This may make it advisable to use   pronounceable character strings or phrases composed on ordinary   words.  But this only affects the format of the password information,   not the requirement that the password be very hard to guess.)   Many other requirements come from the cryptographic arena.   Cryptographic techniques can be used to provide a variety of services   including confidentiality and authentication.  Such services are   based on quantities, traditionally called "keys", that are unknown to   and unguessable by an adversary.   In some cases, such as the use of symmetric encryption with the one   time pads [CRYPTO*] or the US Data Encryption Standard [DES], the   parties who wish to communicate confidentially and/or with   authentication must all know the same secret key.  In other cases,   using what are called asymmetric or "public key" cryptographic   techniques, keys come in pairs.  One key of the pair is private and   must be kept secret by one party, the other is public and can be   published to the world.  It is computationally infeasible to   determine the private key from the public key [ASYMMETRIC, CRYPTO*].   The frequency and volume of the requirement for random quantities   differs greatly for different cryptographic systems.  Using pure RSA   [CRYPTO*], random quantities are required when the key pair is   generated, but thereafter any number of messages can be signed   without any further need for randomness.  The public key Digital   Signature Algorithm that has been proposed by the US National   Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) requires good random   numbers for each signature.  And encrypting with a one time pad, in   principle the strongest possible encryption technique, requires a   volume of randomness equal to all the messages to be processed.   In most of these cases, an adversary can try to determine the   "secret" key by trial and error.  (This is possible as long as the   key is enough smaller than the message that the correct key can be   uniquely identified.)  The probability of an adversary succeeding at   this must be made acceptably low, depending on the particular   application.  The size of the space the adversary must search is   related to the amount of key "information" present in the information   theoretic sense [SHANNON].  This depends on the number of differentEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 4]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   secret values possible and the probability of each value as follows:                      -----                       \        Bits-of-info =  \  - p   * log  ( p  )                        /     i       2    i                       /                      -----   where i varies from 1 to the number of possible secret values and p   sub i is the probability of the value numbered i.  (Since p sub i is   less than one, the log will be negative so each term in the sum will   be non-negative.)   If there are 2^n different values of equal probability, then n bits   of information are present and an adversary would, on the average,   have to try half of the values, or 2^(n-1) , before guessing the   secret quantity.  If the probability of different values is unequal,   then there is less information present and fewer guesses will, on   average, be required by an adversary.  In particular, any values that   the adversary can know are impossible, or are of low probability, can   be initially ignored by an adversary, who will search through the   more probable values first.   For example, consider a cryptographic system that uses 56 bit keys.   If these 56 bit keys are derived by using a fixed pseudo-random   number generator that is seeded with an 8 bit seed, then an adversary   needs to search through only 256 keys (by running the pseudo-random   number generator with every possible seed), not the 2^56 keys that   may at first appear to be the case. Only 8 bits of "information" are   in these 56 bit keys.3. Traditional Pseudo-Random Sequences   Most traditional sources of random numbers use deterministic sources   of "pseudo-random" numbers.  These typically start with a "seed"   quantity and use numeric or logical operations to produce a sequence   of values.   [KNUTH] has a classic exposition on pseudo-random numbers.   Applications he mentions are simulation of natural phenomena,   sampling, numerical analysis, testing computer programs, decision   making, and games.  None of these have the same characteristics as   the sort of security uses we are talking about.  Only in the last two   could there be an adversary trying to find the random quantity.   However, in these cases, the adversary normally has only a single   chance to use a guessed value.  In guessing passwords or attempting   to break an encryption scheme, the adversary normally has many,Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 5]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   perhaps unlimited, chances at guessing the correct value and should   be assumed to be aided by a computer.   For testing the "randomness" of numbers, Knuth suggests a variety of   measures including statistical and spectral.  These tests check   things like autocorrelation between different parts of a "random"   sequence or distribution of its values.  They could be met by a   constant stored random sequence, such as the "random" sequence   printed in the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables [CRC].   A typical pseudo-random number generation technique, known as a   linear congruence pseudo-random number generator, is modular   arithmetic where the N+1th value is calculated from the Nth value by        V    = ( V  * a + b )(Mod c)         N+1      N   The above technique has a strong relationship to linear shift   register pseudo-random number generators, which are well understood   cryptographically [SHIFT*].  In such generators bits are introduced   at one end of a shift register as the Exclusive Or (binary sum   without carry) of bits from selected fixed taps into the register.   For example:      +----+     +----+     +----+                      +----+      | B  | <-- | B  | <-- | B  | <--  . . . . . . <-- | B  | <-+      |  0 |     |  1 |     |  2 |                      |  n |   |      +----+     +----+     +----+                      +----+   |        |                     |            |                     |        |                     |            V                  +-----+        |                     V            +----------------> |     |        V                     +-----------------------------> | XOR |        +---------------------------------------------------> |     |                                                              +-----+       V    = ( ( V  * 2 ) + B .xor. B ... )(Mod 2^n)        N+1         N         0       2   The goodness of traditional pseudo-random number generator algorithms   is measured by statistical tests on such sequences.  Carefully chosen   values of the initial V and a, b, and c or the placement of shift   register tap in the above simple processes can produce excellent   statistics.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 6]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   These sequences may be adequate in simulations (Monte Carlo   experiments) as long as the sequence is orthogonal to the structure   of the space being explored.  Even there, subtle patterns may cause   problems.  However, such sequences are clearly bad for use in   security applications.  They are fully predictable if the initial   state is known.  Depending on the form of the pseudo-random number   generator, the sequence may be determinable from observation of a   short portion of the sequence [CRYPTO*, STERN].  For example, with   the generators above, one can determine V(n+1) given knowledge of   V(n).  In fact, it has been shown that with these techniques, even if   only one bit of the pseudo-random values is released, the seed can be   determined from short sequences.   Not only have linear congruent generators been broken, but techniques   are now known for breaking all polynomial congruent generators   [KRAWCZYK].4. Unpredictability   Randomness in the traditional sense described insection 3 is NOT the   same as the unpredictability required for security use.   For example, use of a widely available constant sequence, such as   that from the CRC tables, is very weak against an adversary. Once   they learn of or guess it, they can easily break all security, future   and past, based on the sequence [CRC].  Yet the statistical   properties of these tables are good.   The following sections describe the limitations of some randomness   generation techniques and sources.4.1 Problems with Clocks and Serial Numbers   Computer clocks, or similar operating system or hardware values,   provide significantly fewer real bits of unpredictability than might   appear from their specifications.   Tests have been done on clocks on numerous systems and it was found   that their behavior can vary widely and in unexpected ways.  One   version of an operating system running on one set of hardware may   actually provide, say, microsecond resolution in a clock while a   different configuration of the "same" system may always provide the   same lower bits and only count in the upper bits at much lower   resolution.  This means that successive reads on the clock may   produce identical values even if enough time has passed that the   value "should" change based on the nominal clock resolution. There   are also cases where frequently reading a clock can produce   artificial sequential values because of extra code that checks forEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 7]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   the clock being unchanged between two reads and increases it by one!   Designing portable application code to generate unpredictable numbers   based on such system clocks is particularly challenging because the   system designer does not always know the properties of the system   clocks that the code will execute on.   Use of a hardware serial number such as an Ethernet address may also   provide fewer bits of uniqueness than one would guess.  Such   quantities are usually heavily structured and subfields may have only   a limited range of possible values or values easily guessable based   on approximate date of manufacture or other data.  For example, it is   likely that most of the Ethernet cards installed on Digital Equipment   Corporation (DEC) hardware within DEC were manufactured by DEC   itself, which significantly limits the range of built in addresses.   Problems such as those described above related to clocks and serial   numbers make code to produce unpredictable quantities difficult if   the code is to be ported across a variety of computer platforms and   systems.4.2 Timing and Content of External Events   It is possible to measure the timing and content of mouse movement,   key strokes, and similar user events.  This is a reasonable source of   unguessable data with some qualifications.  On some machines, inputs   such as key strokes are buffered.  Even though the user's inter-   keystroke timing may have sufficient variation and unpredictability,   there might not be an easy way to access that variation.  Another   problem is that no standard method exists to sample timing details.   This makes it hard to build standard software intended for   distribution to a large range of machines based on this technique.   The amount of mouse movement or the keys actually hit are usually   easier to access than timings but may yield less unpredictability as   the user may provide highly repetitive input.   Other external events, such as network packet arrival times, can also   be used with care.  In particular, the possibility of manipulation of   such times by an adversary must be considered.4.3 The Fallacy of Complex Manipulation   One strategy which may give a misleading appearance of   unpredictability is to take a very complex algorithm (or an excellent   traditional pseudo-random number generator with good statistical   properties) and calculate a cryptographic key by starting with the   current value of a computer system clock as the seed.  An adversary   who knew roughly when the generator was started would have aEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 8]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   relatively small number of seed values to test as they would know   likely values of the system clock.  Large numbers of pseudo-random   bits could be generated but the search space an adversary would need   to check could be quite small.   Thus very strong and/or complex manipulation of data will not help if   the adversary can learn what the manipulation is and there is not   enough unpredictability in the starting seed value.  Even if they can   not learn what the manipulation is, they may be able to use the   limited number of results stemming from a limited number of seed   values to defeat security.   Another serious strategy error is to assume that a very complex   pseudo-random number generation algorithm will produce strong random   numbers when there has been no theory behind or analysis of the   algorithm.  There is a excellent example of this fallacy right near   the beginning of chapter 3 in [KNUTH] where the author describes a   complex algorithm.  It was intended that the machine language program   corresponding to the algorithm would be so complicated that a person   trying to read the code without comments wouldn't know what the   program was doing.  Unfortunately, actual use of this algorithm   showed that it almost immediately converged to a single repeated   value in one case and a small cycle of values in another case.   Not only does complex manipulation not help you if you have a limited   range of seeds but blindly chosen complex manipulation can destroy   the randomness in a good seed!4.4 The Fallacy of Selection from a Large Database   Another strategy that can give a misleading appearance of   unpredictability is selection of a quantity randomly from a database   and assume that its strength is related to the total number of bits   in the database.  For example, typical USENET servers as of this date   process over 35 megabytes of information per day.  Assume a random   quantity was selected by fetching 32 bytes of data from a random   starting point in this data.  This does not yield 32*8 = 256 bits   worth of unguessability.  Even after allowing that much of the data   is human language and probably has more like 2 or 3 bits of   information per byte, it doesn't yield 32*2.5 = 80 bits of   unguessability.  For an adversary with access to the same 35   megabytes the unguessability rests only on the starting point of the   selection.  That is, at best, about 25 bits of unguessability in this   case.   The same argument applies to selecting sequences from the data on a   CD ROM or Audio CD recording or any other large public database.  If   the adversary has access to the same database, this "selection from aEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                    [Page 9]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   large volume of data" step buys very little.  However, if a selection   can be made from data to which the adversary has no access, such as   system buffers on an active multi-user system, it may be of some   help.5. Hardware for Randomness   Is there any hope for strong portable randomness in the future?   There might be.  All that's needed is a physical source of   unpredictable numbers.   A thermal noise or radioactive decay source and a fast, free-running   oscillator would do the trick directly [GIFFORD].  This is a trivial   amount of hardware, and could easily be included as a standard part   of a computer system's architecture.  Furthermore, any system with a   spinning disk or the like has an adequate source of randomness   [DAVIS].  All that's needed is the common perception among computer   vendors that this small additional hardware and the software to   access it is necessary and useful.5.1 Volume Required   How much unpredictability is needed?  Is it possible to quantify the   requirement in, say, number of random bits per second?   The answer is not very much is needed.  For DES, the key is 56 bits   and, as we show in an example inSection 8, even the highest security   system is unlikely to require a keying material of over 200 bits.  If   a series of keys are needed, it can be generated from a strong random   seed using a cryptographically strong sequence as explained inSection 6.3.  A few hundred random bits generated once a day would be   enough using such techniques.  Even if the random bits are generated   as slowly as one per second and it is not possible to overlap the   generation process, it should be tolerable in high security   applications to wait 200 seconds occasionally.   These numbers are trivial to achieve.  It could be done by a person   repeatedly tossing a coin.  Almost any hardware process is likely to   be much faster.5.2 Sensitivity to Skew   Is there any specific requirement on the shape of the distribution of   the random numbers?  The good news is the distribution need not be   uniform.  All that is needed is a conservative estimate of how non-   uniform it is to bound performance.  Two simple techniques to de-skew   the bit stream are given below and stronger techniques are mentioned   inSection 6.1.2 below.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 10]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 19945.2.1 Using Stream Parity to De-Skew   Consider taking a sufficiently long string of bits and map the string   to "zero" or "one".  The mapping will not yield a perfectly uniform   distribution, but it can be as close as desired.  One mapping that   serves the purpose is to take the parity of the string.  This has the   advantages that it is robust across all degrees of skew up to the   estimated maximum skew and is absolutely trivial to implement in   hardware.   The following analysis gives the number of bits that must be sampled:   Suppose the ratio of ones to zeros is 0.5 + e : 0.5 - e, where e is   between 0 and 0.5 and is a measure of the "eccentricity" of the   distribution.  Consider the distribution of the parity function of N   bit samples.  The probabilities that the parity will be one or zero   will be the sum of the odd or even terms in the binomial expansion of   (p + q)^N, where p = 0.5 + e, the probability of a one, and q = 0.5 -   e, the probability of a zero.   These sums can be computed easily as                         N            N        1/2 * ( ( p + q )  + ( p - q )  )   and                         N            N        1/2 * ( ( p + q )  - ( p - q )  ).   (Which one corresponds to the probability the parity will be 1   depends on whether N is odd or even.)   Since p + q = 1 and p - q = 2e, these expressions reduce to                       N        1/2 * [1 + (2e) ]   and                       N        1/2 * [1 - (2e) ].   Neither of these will ever be exactly 0.5 unless e is zero, but we   can bring them arbitrarily close to 0.5.  If we want the   probabilities to be within some delta d of 0.5, i.e. then                            N        ( 0.5 + ( 0.5 * (2e)  ) )  <  0.5 + d.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 11]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   Solving for N yields N > log(2d)/log(2e).  (Note that 2e is less than   1, so its log is negative.  Division by a negative number reverses   the sense of an inequality.)   The following table gives the length of the string which must be   sampled for various degrees of skew in order to come within 0.001 of   a 50/50 distribution.                       +---------+--------+-------+                       | Prob(1) |    e   |    N  |                       +---------+--------+-------+                       |   0.5   |  0.00  |    1  |                       |   0.6   |  0.10  |    4  |                       |   0.7   |  0.20  |    7  |                       |   0.8   |  0.30  |   13  |                       |   0.9   |  0.40  |   28  |                       |   0.95  |  0.45  |   59  |                       |   0.99  |  0.49  |  308  |                       +---------+--------+-------+   The last entry shows that even if the distribution is skewed 99% in   favor of ones, the parity of a string of 308 samples will be within   0.001 of a 50/50 distribution.5.2.2 Using Transition Mappings to De-Skew   Another technique, originally due to von Neumann [VON NEUMANN], is to   examine a bit stream as a sequence of non-overlapping pairs. You   could then discard any 00 or 11 pairs found, interpret 01 as a 0 and   10 as a 1.  Assume the probability of a 1 is 0.5+e and the   probability of a 0 is 0.5-e where e is the eccentricity of the source   and described in the previous section.  Then the probability of each   pair is as follows:            +------+-----------------------------------------+            | pair |            probability                  |            +------+-----------------------------------------+            |  00  | (0.5 - e)^2          =  0.25 - e + e^2  |            |  01  | (0.5 - e)*(0.5 + e)  =  0.25     - e^2  |            |  10  | (0.5 + e)*(0.5 - e)  =  0.25     - e^2  |            |  11  | (0.5 + e)^2          =  0.25 + e + e^2  |            +------+-----------------------------------------+   This technique will completely eliminate any bias but at the expense   of taking an indeterminate number of input bits for any particular   desired number of output bits.  The probability of any particular   pair being discarded is 0.5 + 2e^2 so the expected number of input   bits to produce X output bits is X/(0.25 - e^2).Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 12]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   This technique assumes that the bits are from a stream where each bit   has the same probability of being a 0 or 1 as any other bit in the   stream and that bits are not correlated, i.e., that the bits are   identical independent distributions.  If alternate bits were from two   correlated sources, for example, the above analysis breaks down.   The above technique also provides another illustration of how a   simple statistical analysis can mislead if one is not always on the   lookout for patterns that could be exploited by an adversary.  If the   algorithm were mis-read slightly so that overlapping successive bits   pairs were used instead of non-overlapping pairs, the statistical   analysis given is the same; however, instead of provided an unbiased   uncorrelated series of random 1's and 0's, it instead produces a   totally predictable sequence of exactly alternating 1's and 0's.5.2.3 Using FFT to De-Skew   When real world data consists of strongly biased or correlated bits,   it may still contain useful amounts of randomness.  This randomness   can be extracted through use of the discrete Fourier transform or its   optimized variant, the FFT.   Using the Fourier transform of the data, strong correlations can be   discarded.  If adequate data is processed and remaining correlations   decay, spectral lines approaching statistical independence and   normally distributed randomness can be produced [BRILLINGER].5.2.4 Using Compression to De-Skew   Reversible compression techniques also provide a crude method of de-   skewing a skewed bit stream.  This follows directly from the   definition of reversible compression and the formula inSection 2   above for the amount of information in a sequence.  Since the   compression is reversible, the same amount of information must be   present in the shorter output than was present in the longer input.   By the Shannon information equation, this is only possible if, on   average, the probabilities of the different shorter sequences are   more uniformly distributed than were the probabilities of the longer   sequences.  Thus the shorter sequences are de-skewed relative to the   input.   However, many compression techniques add a somewhat predicatable   preface to their output stream and may insert such a sequence again   periodically in their output or otherwise introduce subtle patterns   of their own.  They should be considered only a rough technique   compared with those described above or inSection 6.1.2.  At a   minimum, the beginning of the compressed sequence should be skipped   and only later bits used for applications requiring random bits.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 13]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 19945.3 Existing Hardware Can Be Used For Randomness   As described below, many computers come with hardware that can, with   care, be used to generate truly random quantities.5.3.1 Using Existing Sound/Video Input   Increasingly computers are being built with inputs that digitize some   real world analog source, such as sound from a microphone or video   input from a camera.  Under appropriate circumstances, such input can   provide reasonably high quality random bits.  The "input" from a   sound digitizer with no source plugged in or a camera with the lens   cap on, if the system has enough gain to detect anything, is   essentially thermal noise.   For example, on a SPARCstation, one can read from the /dev/audio   device with nothing plugged into the microphone jack.  Such data is   essentially random noise although it should not be trusted without   some checking in case of hardware failure.  It will, in any case,   need to be de-skewed as described elsewhere.   Combining this with compression to de-skew one can, in UNIXese,   generate a huge amount of medium quality random data by doing        cat /dev/audio | compress - >random-bits-file5.3.2 Using Existing Disk Drives   Disk drives have small random fluctuations in their rotational speed   due to chaotic air turbulence [DAVIS].  By adding low level disk seek   time instrumentation to a system, a series of measurements can be   obtained that include this randomness. Such data is usually highly   correlated so that significant processing is needed, including FFT   (seesection 5.2.3).  Nevertheless experimentation has shown that,   with such processing, disk drives easily produce 100 bits a minute or   more of excellent random data.   Partly offsetting this need for processing is the fact that disk   drive failure will normally be rapidly noticed.  Thus, problems with   this method of random number generation due to hardware failure are   very unlikely.6. Recommended Non-Hardware Strategy   What is the best overall strategy for meeting the requirement for   unguessable random numbers in the absence of a reliable hardware   source?  It is to obtain random input from a large number of   uncorrelated sources and to mix them with a strong mixing function.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 14]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   Such a function will preserve the randomness present in any of the   sources even if other quantities being combined are fixed or easily   guessable.  This may be advisable even with a good hardware source as   hardware can also fail, though this should be weighed against any   increase in the chance of overall failure due to added software   complexity.6.1 Mixing Functions   A strong mixing function is one which combines two or more inputs and   produces an output where each output bit is a different complex non-   linear function of all the input bits.  On average, changing any   input bit will change about half the output bits.  But because the   relationship is complex and non-linear, no particular output bit is   guaranteed to change when any particular input bit is changed.   Consider the problem of converting a stream of bits that is skewed   towards 0 or 1 to a shorter stream which is more random, as discussed   inSection 5.2 above.  This is simply another case where a strong   mixing function is desired, mixing the input bits to produce a   smaller number of output bits.  The technique given inSection 5.2.1   of using the parity of a number of bits is simply the result of   successively Exclusive Or'ing them which is examined as a trivial   mixing function immediately below.  Use of stronger mixing functions   to extract more of the randomness in a stream of skewed bits is   examined inSection 6.1.2.6.1.1 A Trivial Mixing Function   A trivial example for single bit inputs is the Exclusive Or function,   which is equivalent to addition without carry, as show in the table   below.  This is a degenerate case in which the one output bit always   changes for a change in either input bit.  But, despite its   simplicity, it will still provide a useful illustration.                   +-----------+-----------+----------+                   |  input 1  |  input 2  |  output  |                   +-----------+-----------+----------+                   |     0     |     0     |     0    |                   |     0     |     1     |     1    |                   |     1     |     0     |     1    |                   |     1     |     1     |     0    |                   +-----------+-----------+----------+   If inputs 1 and 2 are uncorrelated and combined in this fashion then   the output will be an even better (less skewed) random bit than the   inputs.  If we assume an "eccentricity" e as defined inSection 5.2   above, then the output eccentricity relates to the input eccentricityEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 15]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   as follows:        e       = 2 * e        * e         output        input 1    input 2   Since e is never greater than 1/2, the eccentricity is always   improved except in the case where at least one input is a totally   skewed constant.  This is illustrated in the following table where   the top and left side values are the two input eccentricities and the   entries are the output eccentricity:     +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+     |    e   |  0.00  |  0.10  |  0.20  |  0.30  |  0.40  |  0.50  |     +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+     |  0.00  |  0.00  |  0.00  |  0.00  |  0.00  |  0.00  |  0.00  |     |  0.10  |  0.00  |  0.02  |  0.04  |  0.06  |  0.08  |  0.10  |     |  0.20  |  0.00  |  0.04  |  0.08  |  0.12  |  0.16  |  0.20  |     |  0.30  |  0.00  |  0.06  |  0.12  |  0.18  |  0.24  |  0.30  |     |  0.40  |  0.00  |  0.08  |  0.16  |  0.24  |  0.32  |  0.40  |     |  0.50  |  0.00  |  0.10  |  0.20  |  0.30  |  0.40  |  0.50  |     +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+   However, keep in mind that the above calculations assume that the   inputs are not correlated.  If the inputs were, say, the parity of   the number of minutes from midnight on two clocks accurate to a few   seconds, then each might appear random if sampled at random intervals   much longer than a minute.  Yet if they were both sampled and   combined with xor, the result would be zero most of the time.6.1.2 Stronger Mixing Functions   The US Government Data Encryption Standard [DES] is an example of a   strong mixing function for multiple bit quantities.  It takes up to   120 bits of input (64 bits of "data" and 56 bits of "key") and   produces 64 bits of output each of which is dependent on a complex   non-linear function of all input bits.  Other strong encryption   functions with this characteristic can also be used by considering   them to mix all of their key and data input bits.   Another good family of mixing functions are the "message digest" or   hashing functions such as The US Government Secure Hash Standard   [SHS] and the MD2, MD4, MD5 [MD2, MD4, MD5] series.  These functions   all take an arbitrary amount of input and produce an output mixing   all the input bits. The MD* series produce 128 bits of output and SHS   produces 160 bits.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 16]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   Although the message digest functions are designed for variable   amounts of input, DES and other encryption functions can also be used   to combine any number of inputs.  If 64 bits of output is adequate,   the inputs can be packed into a 64 bit data quantity and successive   56 bit keys, padding with zeros if needed, which are then used to   successively encrypt using DES in Electronic Codebook Mode [DES   MODES].  If more than 64 bits of output are needed, use more complex   mixing.  For example, if inputs are packed into three quantities, A,   B, and C, use DES to encrypt A with B as a key and then with C as a   key to produce the 1st part of the output, then encrypt B with C and   then A for more output and, if necessary, encrypt C with A and then B   for yet more output.  Still more output can be produced by reversing   the order of the keys given above to stretch things. The same can be   done with the hash functions by hashing various subsets of the input   data to produce multiple outputs.  But keep in mind that it is   impossible to get more bits of "randomness" out than are put in.   An example of using a strong mixing function would be to reconsider   the case of a string of 308 bits each of which is biased 99% towards   zero.  The parity technique given inSection 5.2.1 above reduced this   to one bit with only a 1/1000 deviance from being equally likely a   zero or one.  But, applying the equation for information given inSection 2, this 308 bit sequence has 5 bits of information in it.   Thus hashing it with SHS or MD5 and taking the bottom 5 bits of the   result would yield 5 unbiased random bits as opposed to the single   bit given by calculating the parity of the string.6.1.3 Diffie-Hellman as a Mixing Function   Diffie-Hellman exponential key exchange is a technique that yields a   shared secret between two parties that can be made computationally   infeasible for a third party to determine even if they can observe   all the messages between the two communicating parties.  This shared   secret is a mixture of initial quantities generated by each of them   [D-H].  If these initial quantities are random, then the shared   secret contains the combined randomness of them both, assuming they   are uncorrelated.6.1.4 Using a Mixing Function to Stretch Random Bits   While it is not necessary for a mixing function to produce the same   or fewer bits than its inputs, mixing bits cannot "stretch" the   amount of random unpredictability present in the inputs.  Thus four   inputs of 32 bits each where there is 12 bits worth of   unpredicatability (such as 4,096 equally probable values) in each   input cannot produce more than 48 bits worth of unpredictable output.   The output can be expanded to hundreds or thousands of bits by, for   example, mixing with successive integers, but the clever adversary'sEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 17]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   search space is still 2^48 possibilities.  Furthermore, mixing to   fewer bits than are input will tend to strengthen the randomness of   the output the way using Exclusive Or to produce one bit from two did   above.   The last table inSection 6.1.1 shows that mixing a random bit with a   constant bit with Exclusive Or will produce a random bit.  While this   is true, it does not provide a way to "stretch" one random bit into   more than one.  If, for example, a random bit is mixed with a 0 and   then with a 1, this produces a two bit sequence but it will always be   either 01 or 10.  Since there are only two possible values, there is   still only the one bit of original randomness.6.1.5 Other Factors in Choosing a Mixing Function   For local use, DES has the advantages that it has been widely tested   for flaws, is widely documented, and is widely implemented with   hardware and software implementations available all over the world   including source code available by anonymous FTP.  The SHS and MD*   family are younger algorithms which have been less tested but there   is no particular reason to believe they are flawed.  Both MD5 and SHS   were derived from the earlier MD4 algorithm.  They all have source   code available by anonymous FTP [SHS,MD2, MD4, MD5].   DES and SHS have been vouched for the the US National Security Agency   (NSA) on the basis of criteria that primarily remain secret.  While   this is the cause of much speculation and doubt, investigation of DES   over the years has indicated that NSA involvement in modifications to   its design, which originated with IBM, was primarily to strengthen   it.  No concealed or special weakness has been found in DES.  It is   almost certain that the NSA modification to MD4 to produce the SHS   similarly strengthened the algorithm, possibly against threats not   yet known in the public cryptographic community.   DES, SHS, MD4, and MD5 are royalty free for all purposes.  MD2 has   been freely licensed only for non-profit use in connection with   Privacy Enhanced Mail [PEM].  Between the MD* algorithms, some people   believe that, as with "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", MD2 is strong   but too slow, MD4 is fast but too weak, and MD5 is just right.   Another advantage of the MD* or similar hashing algorithms over   encryption algorithms is that they are not subject to the same   regulations imposed by the US Government prohibiting the unlicensed   export or import of encryption/decryption software and hardware.  The   same should be true of DES rigged to produce an irreversible hash   code but most DES packages are oriented to reversible encryption.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 18]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 19946.2 Non-Hardware Sources of Randomness   The best source of input for mixing would be a hardware randomness   such as disk drive timing affected by air turbulence, audio input   with thermal noise, or radioactive decay.  However, if that is not   available there are other possibilities.  These include system   clocks, system or input/output buffers, user/system/hardware/network   serial numbers and/or addresses and timing, and user input.   Unfortunately, any of these sources can produce limited or   predicatable values under some circumstances.   Some of the sources listed above would be quite strong on multi-user   systems where, in essence, each user of the system is a source of   randomness.  However, on a small single user system, such as a   typical IBM PC or Apple Macintosh, it might be possible for an   adversary to assemble a similar configuration.  This could give the   adversary inputs to the mixing process that were sufficiently   correlated to those used originally as to make exhaustive search   practical.   The use of multiple random inputs with a strong mixing function is   recommended and can overcome weakness in any particular input.  For   example, the timing and content of requested "random" user keystrokes   can yield hundreds of random bits but conservative assumptions need   to be made.  For example, assuming a few bits of randomness if the   inter-keystroke interval is unique in the sequence up to that point   and a similar assumption if the key hit is unique but assuming that   no bits of randomness are present in the initial key value or if the   timing or key value duplicate previous values.  The results of mixing   these timings and characters typed could be further combined with   clock values and other inputs.   This strategy may make practical portable code to produce good random   numbers for security even if some of the inputs are very weak on some   of the target systems.  However, it may still fail against a high   grade attack on small single user systems, especially if the   adversary has ever been able to observe the generation process in the   past.  A hardware based random source is still preferable.6.3 Cryptographically Strong Sequences   In cases where a series of random quantities must be generated, an   adversary may learn some values in the sequence.  In general, they   should not be able to predict other values from the ones that they   know.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 19]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   The correct technique is to start with a strong random seed, take   cryptographically strong steps from that seed [CRYPTO2,CRYPTO3], and   do not reveal the complete state of the generator in the sequence   elements.  If each value in the sequence can be calculated in a fixed   way from the previous value, then when any value is compromised, all   future values can be determined.  This would be the case, for   example, if each value were a constant function of the previously   used values, even if the function were a very strong, non-invertible   message digest function.   It should be noted that if your technique for generating a sequence   of key values is fast enough, it can trivially be used as the basis   for a confidentiality system.  If two parties use the same sequence   generating technique and start with the same seed material, they will   generate identical sequences.  These could, for example, be xor'ed at   one end with data being send, encrypting it, and xor'ed with this   data as received, decrypting it due to the reversible properties of   the xor operation.6.3.1 Traditional Strong Sequences   A traditional way to achieve a strong sequence has been to have the   values be produced by hashing the quantities produced by   concatenating the seed with successive integers or the like and then   mask the values obtained so as to limit the amount of generator state   available to the adversary.   It may also be possible to use an "encryption" algorithm with a   random key and seed value to encrypt and feedback some or all of the   output encrypted value into the value to be encrypted for the next   iteration.  Appropriate feedback techniques will usually be   recommended with the encryption algorithm.  An example is shown below   where shifting and masking are used to combine the cypher output   feedback.  This type of feedback is recommended by the US Government   in connection with DES [DES MODES].Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 20]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994      +---------------+      |       V       |      |  |     n      |      +--+------------+            |      |           +---------+            |      +---------> |         |      +-----+         +--+                  | Encrypt | <--- | Key |         |           +-------- |         |      +-----+         |           |         +---------+         V           V      +------------+--+      |      V     |  |      |       n+1     |      +---------------+   Note that if a shift of one is used, this is the same as the shift   register technique described inSection 3 above but with the all   important difference that the feedback is determined by a complex   non-linear function of all bits rather than a simple linear or   polynomial combination of output from a few bit position taps.   It has been shown by Donald W. Davies that this sort of shifted   partial output feedback significantly weakens an algorithm compared   will feeding all of the output bits back as input.  In particular,   for DES, repeated encrypting a full 64 bit quantity will give an   expected repeat in about 2^63 iterations.  Feeding back anything less   than 64 (and more than 0) bits will give an expected repeat in   between 2**31 and 2**32 iterations!   To predict values of a sequence from others when the sequence was   generated by these techniques is equivalent to breaking the   cryptosystem or inverting the "non-invertible" hashing involved with   only partial information available.  The less information revealed   each iteration, the harder it will be for an adversary to predict the   sequence.  Thus it is best to use only one bit from each value.  It   has been shown that in some cases this makes it impossible to break a   system even when the cryptographic system is invertible and can be   broken if all of each generated value was revealed.6.3.2 The Blum Blum Shub Sequence Generator   Currently the generator which has the strongest public proof of   strength is called the Blum Blum Shub generator after its inventors   [BBS].  It is also very simple and is based on quadratic residues.   It's only disadvantage is that is is computationally intensive   compared with the traditional techniques give in 6.3.1 above.  This   is not a serious draw back if it is used for moderately infrequent   purposes, such as generating session keys.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 21]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   Simply choose two large prime numbers, say p and q, which both have   the property that you get a remainder of 3 if you divide them by 4.   Let n = p * q.  Then you choose a random number x relatively prime to   n.  The initial seed for the generator and the method for calculating   subsequent values are then                   2        s    =  ( x  )(Mod n)         0                   2        s    = ( s   )(Mod n)         i+1      i   You must be careful to use only a few bits from the bottom of each s.   It is always safe to use only the lowest order bit.  If you use no   more than the                  log  ( log  ( s  ) )                     2      2    i   low order bits, then predicting any additional bits from a sequence   generated in this manner is provable as hard as factoring n.  As long   as the initial x is secret, you can even make n public if you want.   An intersting characteristic of this generator is that you can   directly calculate any of the s values.  In particular                     i               ( ( 2  )(Mod (( p - 1 ) * ( q - 1 )) ) )      s  = ( s                                          )(Mod n)       i      0   This means that in applications where many keys are generated in this   fashion, it is not necessary to save them all.  Each key can be   effectively indexed and recovered from that small index and the   initial s and n.7. Key Generation Standards   Several public standards are now in place for the generation of keys.   Two of these are described below.  Both use DES but any equally   strong or stronger mixing function could be substituted.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 22]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 19947.1 US DoD Recommendations for Password Generation   The United States Department of Defense has specific recommendations   for password generation [DoD].  They suggest using the US Data   Encryption Standard [DES] in Output Feedback Mode [DES MODES] as   follows:        use an initialization vector determined from             the system clock,             system ID,             user ID, and             date and time;        use a key determined from             system interrupt registers,             system status registers, and             system counters; and,        as plain text, use an external randomly generated 64 bit        quantity such as 8 characters typed in by a system        administrator.   The password can then be calculated from the 64 bit "cipher text"   generated in 64-bit Output Feedback Mode.  As many bits as are needed   can be taken from these 64 bits and expanded into a pronounceable   word, phrase, or other format if a human being needs to remember the   password.7.2 X9.17 Key Generation   The American National Standards Institute has specified a method for   generating a sequence of keys as follows:        s  is the initial 64 bit seed         0        g  is the sequence of generated 64 bit key quantities         n        k is a random key reserved for generating this key sequence        t is the time at which a key is generated to as fine a resolution            as is available (up to 64 bits).        DES ( K, Q ) is the DES encryption of quantity Q with key KEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 23]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994        g    = DES ( k, DES ( k, t ) .xor. s  )         n                                  n        s    = DES ( k, DES ( k, t ) .xor. g  )         n+1                                n   If g sub n is to be used as a DES key, then every eighth bit should   be adjusted for parity for that use but the entire 64 bit unmodified   g should be used in calculating the next s.8. Examples of Randomness Required   Below are two examples showing rough calculations of needed   randomness for security.  The first is for moderate security   passwords while the second assumes a need for a very high security   cryptographic key.8.1  Password Generation   Assume that user passwords change once a year and it is desired that   the probability that an adversary could guess the password for a   particular account be less than one in a thousand.  Further assume   that sending a password to the system is the only way to try a   password.  Then the crucial question is how often an adversary can   try possibilities.  Assume that delays have been introduced into a   system so that, at most, an adversary can make one password try every   six seconds.  That's 600 per hour or about 15,000 per day or about   5,000,000 tries in a year.  Assuming any sort of monitoring, it is   unlikely someone could actually try continuously for a year.  In   fact, even if log files are only checked monthly, 500,000 tries is   more plausible before the attack is noticed and steps taken to change   passwords and make it harder to try more passwords.   To have a one in a thousand chance of guessing the password in   500,000 tries implies a universe of at least 500,000,000 passwords or   about 2^29.  Thus 29 bits of randomness are needed. This can probably   be achieved using the US DoD recommended inputs for password   generation as it has 8 inputs which probably average over 5 bits of   randomness each (seesection 7.1).  Using a list of 1000 words, the   password could be expressed as a three word phrase (1,000,000,000   possibilities) or, using case insensitive letters and digits, six   would suffice ((26+10)^6 = 2,176,782,336 possibilities).   For a higher security password, the number of bits required goes up.   To decrease the probability by 1,000 requires increasing the universe   of passwords by the same factor which adds about 10 bits.  Thus to   have only a one in a million chance of a password being guessed under   the above scenario would require 39 bits of randomness and a passwordEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 24]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   that was a four word phrase from a 1000 word list or eight   letters/digits.  To go to a one in 10^9 chance, 49 bits of randomness   are needed implying a five word phrase or ten letter/digit password.   In a real system, of course, there are also other factors.  For   example, the larger and harder to remember passwords are, the more   likely users are to write them down resulting in an additional risk   of compromise.8.2 A Very High Security Cryptographic Key   Assume that a very high security key is needed for symmetric   encryption / decryption between two parties.  Assume an adversary can   observe communications and knows the algorithm being used.  Within   the field of random possibilities, the adversary can try key values   in hopes of finding the one in use.  Assume further that brute force   trial of keys is the best the adversary can do.8.2.1 Effort per Key Trial   How much effort will it take to try each key?  For very high security   applications it is best to assume a low value of effort.  Even if it   would clearly take tens of thousands of computer cycles or more to   try a single key, there may be some pattern that enables huge blocks   of key values to be tested with much less effort per key.  Thus it is   probably best to assume no more than a couple hundred cycles per key.   (There is no clear lower bound on this as computers operate in   parallel on a number of bits and a poor encryption algorithm could   allow many keys or even groups of keys to be tested in parallel.   However, we need to assume some value and can hope that a reasonably   strong algorithm has been chosen for our hypothetical high security   task.)   If the adversary can command a highly parallel processor or a large   network of work stations, 2*10^10 cycles per second is probably a   minimum assumption for availability today.  Looking forward just a   couple years, there should be at least an order of magnitude   improvement.  Thus assuming 10^9 keys could be checked per second or   3.6*10^11 per hour or 6*10^13 per week or 2.4*10^14 per month is   reasonable.  This implies a need for a minimum of 51 bits of   randomness in keys to be sure they cannot be found in a month.  Even   then it is possible that, a few years from now, a highly determined   and resourceful adversary could break the key in 2 weeks (on average   they need try only half the keys).Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 25]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 19948.2.2 Meet in the Middle Attacks   If chosen or known plain text and the resulting encrypted text are   available, a "meet in the middle" attack is possible if the structure   of the encryption algorithm allows it.  (In a known plain text   attack, the adversary knows all or part of the messages being   encrypted, possibly some standard header or trailer fields.  In a   chosen plain text attack, the adversary can force some chosen plain   text to be encrypted, possibly by "leaking" an exciting text that   would then be sent by the adversary over an encrypted channel.)   An oversimplified explanation of the meet in the middle attack is as   follows: the adversary can half-encrypt the known or chosen plain   text with all possible first half-keys, sort the output, then half-   decrypt the encoded text with all the second half-keys.  If a match   is found, the full key can be assembled from the halves and used to   decrypt other parts of the message or other messages.  At its best,   this type of attack can halve the exponent of the work required by   the adversary while adding a large but roughly constant factor of   effort.  To be assured of safety against this, a doubling of the   amount of randomness in the key to a minimum of 102 bits is required.   The meet in the middle attack assumes that the cryptographic   algorithm can be decomposed in this way but we can not rule that out   without a deep knowledge of the algorithm.  Even if a basic algorithm   is not subject to a meet in the middle attack, an attempt to produce   a stronger algorithm by applying the basic algorithm twice (or two   different algorithms sequentially) with different keys may gain less   added security than would be expected.  Such a composite algorithm   would be subject to a meet in the middle attack.   Enormous resources may be required to mount a meet in the middle   attack but they are probably within the range of the national   security services of a major nation.  Essentially all nations spy on   other nations government traffic and several nations are believed to   spy on commercial traffic for economic advantage.8.2.3 Other Considerations   Since we have not even considered the possibilities of special   purpose code breaking hardware or just how much of a safety margin we   want beyond our assumptions above, probably a good minimum for a very   high security cryptographic key is 128 bits of randomness which   implies a minimum key length of 128 bits.  If the two parties agree   on a key by Diffie-Hellman exchange [D-H], then in principle only   half of this randomness would have to be supplied by each party.   However, there is probably some correlation between their random   inputs so it is probably best to assume that each party needs toEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 26]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   provide at least 96 bits worth of randomness for very high security   if Diffie-Hellman is used.   This amount of randomness is beyond the limit of that in the inputs   recommended by the US DoD for password generation and could require   user typing timing, hardware random number generation, or other   sources.   It should be noted that key length calculations such at those above   are controversial and depend on various assumptions about the   cryptographic algorithms in use.  In some cases, a professional with   a deep knowledge of code breaking techniques and of the strength of   the algorithm in use could be satisfied with less than half of the   key size derived above.9. Conclusion   Generation of unguessable "random" secret quantities for security use   is an essential but difficult task.   We have shown that hardware techniques to produce such randomness   would be relatively simple.  In particular, the volume and quality   would not need to be high and existing computer hardware, such as   disk drives, can be used.  Computational techniques are available to   process low quality random quantities from multiple sources or a   larger quantity of such low quality input from one source and produce   a smaller quantity of higher quality, less predictable key material.   In the absence of hardware sources of randomness, a variety of user   and software sources can frequently be used instead with care;   however, most modern systems already have hardware, such as disk   drives or audio input, that could be used to produce high quality   randomness.   Once a sufficient quantity of high quality seed key material (a few   hundred bits) is available, strong computational techniques are   available to produce cryptographically strong sequences of   unpredicatable quantities from this seed material.10. Security Considerations   The entirety of this document concerns techniques and recommendations   for generating unguessable "random" quantities for use as passwords,   cryptographic keys, and similar security uses.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 27]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994References   [ASYMMETRIC] - Secure Communications and Asymmetric Cryptosystems,   edited by Gustavus J. Simmons, AAAS Selected Symposium 69, Westview   Press, Inc.   [BBS] - A Simple Unpredictable Pseudo-Random Number Generator, SIAM   Journal on Computing, v. 15, n. 2, 1986, L. Blum, M. Blum, & M. Shub.   [BRILLINGER] - Time Series: Data Analysis and Theory, Holden-Day,   1981, David Brillinger.   [CRC] - C.R.C. Standard Mathematical Tables, Chemical Rubber   Publishing Company.   [CRYPTO1] - Cryptography: A Primer, A Wiley-Interscience Publication,   John Wiley & Sons, 1981, Alan G. Konheim.   [CRYPTO2] - Cryptography:  A New Dimension in Computer Data Security,   A Wiley-Interscience Publication, John Wiley & Sons, 1982, Carl H.   Meyer & Stephen M. Matyas.   [CRYPTO3] - Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source   Code in C, John Wiley & Sons, 1994, Bruce Schneier.   [DAVIS] - Cryptographic Randomness from Air Turbulence in Disk   Drives, Advances in Cryptology - Crypto '94, Springer-Verlag Lecture   Notes in Computer Science #839, 1984, Don Davis, Ross Ihaka, and   Philip Fenstermacher.   [DES] -  Data Encryption Standard, United States of America,   Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and   Technology, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 46-1.   - Data Encryption Algorithm, American National Standards Institute,   ANSI X3.92-1981.   (See also FIPS 112, Password Usage, which includes FORTRAN code for   performing DES.)   [DES MODES] - DES Modes of Operation, United States of America,   Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and   Technology, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 81.   - Data Encryption Algorithm - Modes of Operation, American National   Standards Institute, ANSI X3.106-1983.   [D-H] - New Directions in Cryptography, IEEE Transactions on   Information Technology, November, 1976, Whitfield Diffie and Martin   E. Hellman.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 28]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   [DoD] - Password Management Guideline, United States of America,   Department of Defense, Computer Security Center, CSC-STD-002-85.   (See also FIPS 112, Password Usage, which incorporates CSC-STD-002-85   as one of its appendices.)   [GIFFORD] - Natural Random Number, MIT/LCS/TM-371, September 1988,   David K. Gifford   [KNUTH] - The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical   Algorithms, Chapter 3: Random Numbers. Addison Wesley Publishing   Company, Second Edition 1982, Donald E. Knuth.   [KRAWCZYK] - How to Predict Congruential Generators, Journal of   Algorithms, V. 13, N. 4, December 1992, H. Krawczyk   [MD2] - The MD2 Message-Digest Algorithm,RFC1319, April 1992, B.   Kaliski   [MD4] - The MD4 Message-Digest Algorithm,RFC1320, April 1992, R.   Rivest   [MD5] - The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm,RFC1321, April 1992, R.   Rivest   [PEM] - RFCs 1421 through 1424:   -RFC 1424, Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part   IV: Key Certification and Related Services, 02/10/1993, B. Kaliski   -RFC 1423, Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part   III: Algorithms, Modes, and Identifiers, 02/10/1993, D. Balenson   -RFC 1422, Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part   II: Certificate-Based Key Management, 02/10/1993, S. Kent   -RFC 1421, Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part I:   Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures, 02/10/1993, J. Linn   [SHANNON] - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, University of   Illinois Press, 1963, Claude E. Shannon.  (originally from:  Bell   System Technical Journal, July and October 1948)   [SHIFT1] - Shift Register Sequences, Aegean Park Press, Revised   Edition 1982, Solomon W. Golomb.   [SHIFT2] - Cryptanalysis of Shift-Register Generated Stream Cypher   Systems, Aegean Park Press, 1984, Wayne G. Barker.   [SHS] - Secure Hash Standard, United States of American, National   Institute of Science and Technology, Federal Information Processing   Standard (FIPS) 180, April 1993.   [STERN] - Secret Linear Congruential Generators are not   Cryptograhically Secure, Proceedings of IEEE STOC, 1987, J. Stern.Eastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 29]

RFC 1750        Randomness Recommendations for Security    December 1994   [VON NEUMANN] - Various techniques used in connection with random   digits, von Neumann's Collected Works, Vol. 5, Pergamon Press, 1963,   J. von Neumann.Authors' Addresses   Donald E. Eastlake 3rd   Digital Equipment Corporation   550 King Street, LKG2-1/BB3   Littleton, MA 01460   Phone:   +1 508 486 6577(w)  +1 508 287 4877(h)   EMail:   dee@lkg.dec.com   Stephen D. Crocker   CyberCash Inc.   2086 Hunters Crest Way   Vienna, VA 22181   Phone:   +1 703-620-1222(w)  +1 703-391-2651 (fax)   EMail:   crocker@cybercash.com   Jeffrey I. Schiller   Massachusetts Institute of Technology   77 Massachusetts Avenue   Cambridge, MA 02139   Phone:   +1 617 253 0161(w)   EMail:   jis@mit.eduEastlake, Crocker & Schiller                                   [Page 30]

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