review of RNGs

[ianG]

http://www.cacert.at/random/

Random Number Generator Analysis
This is a project to make statistics about all random number generators 
on the market.

We want to collect information on all kinds of random number generators 
out there, eg. Hardware RNGs, Crypto PRNGs, encoding software, 
compression software, ... We are analysing all of them, and we are 
providing a report about the results here.

FAQ: Why do you need this?

     We want to get a market overview of the whole random number 
generator market
     If I need X Random numbers per second from a good Hardware Random 
number generator, how much do I have to to pay, and where do I get it?
     We want to compare hardware random number generators against crypto 
pseudo random generators
     We want to have a randomness classification system, where we can 
analyse unknown random numbers, and be able to compare the quality with 
known hardware and crypto generators
     We want to run this as a service, so that everyone can easily have 
their own random data tested and compared against the best, in an easy 
and objective test


FAQ: How can I help?

     If you have a random generator yourself, please extract minimum 12 
MB of randomness (or much more, if possible, maximum 1GB), and submit it 
here.
     If you know someone else, who has a random number generator, please 
tell him/her about the project.


FAQ: How are the random numbers being analyzed?

     At the moment, we are using ENT and diehard for analysis. ENT is 
used to sort all results, and diehard is used to raise red flags. We are 
trying to switch to dieharder which promises better tests than diehard.


FAQ: Which format do I have to save the random numbers in?

     Please save your binary (non-decimal!) random numbers into a raw 
binary file, make sure that you do not add CRLF line-endings.


FAQ: What was the impact of this project?

     We discovered predictable random number generators, contacted the 
vendors and got them to fix their products.

If you want to contact me: pg @ futureware . at