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6. Hazard quality testing
Once we've seen how the main types of RNG work, we'll have a good understanding of the different evaluation requirements. For a PRNG, we will study its algorithm in order to provide a mathematical characterization of the quality of the hazard. This study is essential at the design stage, but is beyond the scope of this article. This a priori assessment alone is not sufficient.
We also need to check a posteriori that the implementation of the algorithm (totally theoretical) is correct. Statistical tests are often used for this purpose. In the case of a TRNG, when it is designed, we try to find a mathematical model characterizing the hazard. This requires a very good knowledge of electronic or physical modeling. This aspect goes far beyond the scope of this article. In practice, very few TRNG studies include detailed modelling of their hazard source. Finally, in the...
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Hazard quality testing
Using random numbers
Bibliography
Software tools
DIEHARD: statistical test library proposed in 1995 by G. Marsaglia https://github.com/nmondal/diehard.c
DIEHARDER: statistical test library more comprehensive than DIEHARD and maintained by R. Brown since 2003 http://www.phy.duke.edu/rgb/General/dieharder.php
...Websites
L'ECUYER Pierre. Professional page (numerous publications, software and references on PRNG) http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/lecueyer
Page of a group of computer scientists and mathematicians working on the mathematical, testing and software aspects of PRNG. http://www.random.mat.sbg.ac.at/
...Events
CHES (Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems) annual international conference since 1999. The reference in hardware cryptography with regular papers on RNG (TRNG and PRNG hardware). http://www.chesworkshop.org/
Annual CryptArchi (Cryptographic Architectures Embedded in Reconfigurable Devices) study days since 2003, mainly European....
Standards and norms
- Secure Hash Standard (SHS). Federal information processing standards (FIPS) http://www.csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips180-4/fips-180-4.pdf - FIPS 180-4 - 03-12
- Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules. Federal information processing standards (FIPS) http://www.csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips1401.htm - FIPS 140-1 - 01-94
- A Statistical Test Suite for Random and Pseudorandom Number Generators...
Patents
Parker (R.D.). – Telegraph ciphering key tape machine. US Patent 2 406 031 (1946).
Directory
Organizations – Federations – Associations (non-exhaustive list)
ANSSI: French National Agency for Information Systems Security http://www.ssi.gouv.fr/
BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik ) : German Federal Office for Information Technology Security
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