Random Numbers in Perl

[Jason]

Nathan Saper wrote:
> > The most common portable method of obtaining cryptographically strong
> > random numbers is to generate a seed using the HACK device. (Human At
> > Computer Keyboard :) I believe PGP relies on this method.
> This is probably a stupid question, but: What would be the best way to
> implement this sort of arrangement in Perl?

Ive given this some thought, and have decided that I would need to
know more about the specific nature of your application to answer.
Obviously, the timing of individual keystrokes is not available to a
perl script running on a remote webserver, which only sees a
form-submit as a single clump of data. Basically, with the requirement
for that level of interactivity, totally independant perl coding isnt
possible.

One could generate a seed from a hash of a user-supplied paragraph,
but I am not sure that this would be anywhere near random enough for
the generation of a 1024bit key... Requiring the user to type more
than that would be inconvienent to say the least...



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