Entropy gathering daemon in Python?

Patrick Phalen python-list at teleo.net
Fri Aug 18 12:23:55 EDT 2000


Is there a high quality source of randomness witten in Python, for use
with GPG, OpenSSH, etc.? My impression is that the random module
(Wichmann-Hill) is sufficient for dice rolls in gaming, but would not
be suitable for encryption.

I'm installing OpenSSH on a Solaris 2.4 system (which precedes the
availability of /dev/urandom).

Truerand from research.att.com seems of dubious value for production of
Diffie-Hellman secrets, based as it is on OS event interval variations.
It purports to generate a smidgeon (as little as one bit per clock
tick) of good randomness by counting a tight loop in an environment of
clock skew and various hard to predict OS event arrivals. The author
warns that it really needs to be augmented with human input-- not
available on a server.

Then there's the Perl-based egd which runs in user space, but I haven't
been able to get it to install and question whether its approach is
secure anyway.

Any entropy merchants out there?







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