blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9
  10
  11   </head>
  12   <body>
  13     <div class="title">
  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</div>
  24       <div class="date"> 1st March 2017</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
  26 <a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
  27 USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
  28 Packard.  Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
  29 work great!  According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
  30 box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later.  I tested on a
  31 Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
  32 fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly.  I wrote a small
  33 test oneliner to test.  It first print the current entropy level,
  34 drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
  35 Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
  36
  37 <blockquote><pre>
  38 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
  39   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
  40   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
  41      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
  42      sleep 1; \
  43   done
  44 300
  45 0+1 oppføringer inn
  46 0+1 oppføringer ut
  47 28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
  48 4
  49 8
  50 12
  51 17
  52 21
  53 %
  54 </pre></blockquote>
  55
  56 <p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second.  In such case any
  57 application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
  58 will halt and wait for more entrpy.  And here is the situation with
  59 the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
  60
  61 <blockquote><pre>
  62 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
  63   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
  64   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
  65      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
  66      sleep 1; \
  67   done
  68 1079
  69 0+1 oppføringer inn
  70 0+1 oppføringer ut
  71 104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
  72 433
  73 1028
  74 1031
  75 1035
  76 1038
  77 %
  78 </pre></blockquote>
  79
  80 <p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
  81 someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p>
  82
  83 <p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year.  You might
  84 find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk
  85 recording illuminating</a>.  It explains exactly what the source of
  86 randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing
  87 available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog
  88 post.</p>
  89 </div>
  90
  91       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.</div>
  92
  93
  94     </div>
  95
  96
  97
  98
  99     <div id="sidebar">
 100
 101
 102
 103 <h2>Archive</h2>
 104 <ul>
 105
 106 <li>2017
 107 <ul>
 108
 109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
 110
 111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
 112
 113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (5)</a></li>
 114
 115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/04/">April (2)</a></li>
 116
 117 </ul></li>
 118
 119 <li>2016
 120 <ul>
 121
 122 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
 123
 124 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
 125
 126 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 127
 128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
 129
 130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
 131
 132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 133
 134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
 135
 136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
 137
 138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
 139
 140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
 141
 142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
 143
 144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
 145
 146 </ul></li>
 147
 148 <li>2015
 149 <ul>
 150
 151 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 152
 153 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 154
 155 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
 156
 157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
 158
 159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 160
 161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
 162
 163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
 164
 165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 166
 167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
 168
 169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 170
 171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
 172
 173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 174
 175 </ul></li>
 176
 177 <li>2014
 178 <ul>
 179
 180 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 181
 182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
 183
 184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
 185
 186 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 187
 188 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
 189
 190 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 191
 192 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
 193
 194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 195
 196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 197
 198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
 199
 200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 201
 202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
 203
 204 </ul></li>
 205
 206 <li>2013
 207 <ul>
 208
 209 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 210
 211 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 212
 213 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 214
 215 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
 216
 217 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 218
 219 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
 220
 221 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 222
 223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 224
 225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 226
 227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 228
 229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
 230
 231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 232
 233 </ul></li>
 234
 235 <li>2012
 236 <ul>
 237
 238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 239
 240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 241
 242 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 243
 244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 245
 246 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 247
 248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 249
 250 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 251
 252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 253
 254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 255
 256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 257
 258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 259
 260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 261
 262 </ul></li>
 263
 264 <li>2011
 265 <ul>
 266
 267 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 268
 269 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 270
 271 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 272
 273 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 274
 275 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 276
 277 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 278
 279 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 280
 281 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 282
 283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 284
 285 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 286
 287 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 288
 289 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 290
 291 </ul></li>
 292
 293 <li>2010
 294 <ul>
 295
 296 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 297
 298 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 299
 300 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 301
 302 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 303
 304 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 305
 306 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 307
 308 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 309
 310 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 311
 312 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 313
 314 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 315
 316 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 317
 318 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 319
 320 </ul></li>
 321
 322 <li>2009
 323 <ul>
 324
 325 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 326
 327 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 328
 329 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 330
 331 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 332
 333 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 334
 335 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 336
 337 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 338
 339 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 340
 341 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 342
 343 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 344
 345 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 346
 347 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 348
 349 </ul></li>
 350
 351 <li>2008
 352 <ul>
 353
 354 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 355
 356 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 357
 358 </ul></li>
 359
 360 </ul>
 361
 362
 363
 364 <h2>Tags</h2>
 365 <ul>
 366
 367  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 368
 369  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 370
 371  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 372
 373  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 374
 375  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
 376
 377  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
 378
 379  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 380
 381  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
 382
 383  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (148)</a></li>
 384
 385  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
 386
 387  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (3)</a></li>
 388
 389  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
 390
 391  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (16)</a></li>
 392
 393  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (23)</a></li>
 394
 395  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 396
 397  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (346)</a></li>
 398
 399  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
 400
 401  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 402
 403  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (29)</a></li>
 404
 405  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
 406
 407  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
 408
 409  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
 410
 411  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
 412
 413  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (15)</a></li>
 414
 415  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (20)</a></li>
 416
 417  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
 418
 419  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
 420
 421  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
 422
 423  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 424
 425  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
 426
 427  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
 428
 429  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (9)</a></li>
 430
 431  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (289)</a></li>
 432
 433  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (188)</a></li>
 434
 435  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (31)</a></li>
 436
 437  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 438
 439  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (64)</a></li>
 440
 441  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (99)</a></li>
 442
 443  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 444
 445  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
 446
 447  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 448
 449  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
 450
 451  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
 452
 453  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 454
 455  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (5)</a></li>
 456
 457  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 458
 459  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (52)</a></li>
 460
 461  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 462
 463  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
 464
 465  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (52)</a></li>
 466
 467  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (5)</a></li>
 468
 469  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (11)</a></li>
 470
 471  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (48)</a></li>
 472
 473  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (3)</a></li>
 474
 475  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
 476
 477  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
 478
 479  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
 480
 481  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 482
 483  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (40)</a></li>
 484
 485 </ul>
 486
 487
 488     </div>
 489     <p style="text-align: right">
 490  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
 491 </p>
 492
 493   </body>
 494 </html>