Re: [LUG] FreeBSD will no longer use Intel or Via hardware random number generators

[Martijn Grooten <dcglug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2013, Philip Hudson wrote:

> http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/12/we-cannot-trust-intel-and-vias-chip-based-crypto-freebsd-developers-say/

Good move.

Pseudo-random number generators are the weakest link in many a crypto 
system. They're also the easiest to backdoor - and such backdoors are the 
hardest to spot.

Putting them inside the hardware makes it even harder to detect.

As the last paragraph of the article says, they way they do it, would have 
been a good move anyway, regardless of how much one trusts the hardware 
vendors.

Martijn.

PS A few months ago, I wrote a blog about how the NSA backdoored a PRNG in 
a NIST standard. As secret backdoors go, it wasn't crafted particularly 
well. But it illustrates the possibilities:

http://www.lapsedordinary.net/2013/09/23/how-the-nsa-cheated-cryptography/

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