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May
15
comment True random numbers generated by sensors
These sensors were designed by an engineer to measure acceleration; they were NOT designed to be a random number generator. Therefore the overly-high precision readings you are seeing have no engineering reason to reflect actual randomness. Yes, you can still use these sensors to generate randomness, but the only reliable way is to use them for their intended purpose to measure acceleration, and to derive randomness from that activity. Don't rely on the accidental fluctuations unless you understand how they are being generated.
May
15
comment True random numbers generated by sensors
You are better off using Apple's SecRandomCopyBytes(), which is a cryptographically secure random number generator. If you want to add the jitter from the accelerometer into the entropy pool, you can periodically write those bits into /dev/random. See developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/… and developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Security/… for more info.
May
15
comment True random numbers generated by sensors
You are seeing "jitter". Those bottom bits are changing for some physical reason. It's possible the suspended mass is shaking due to ambient sound or other vibrations in the room, or due to a capacitive charge, or maybe even a small magnetic field. There is no guarantee that the reason isn't physical and predictable. What if a capacitive charge is causing the values to oscillate at a period that you don't yet recognize is synchronized with your polling of the sensor?
May
15
answered True random numbers generated by sensors
May
14
comment Using an MD5 hash as a password
In practice, there's another problem in that different sites have incompatible password complexity schemes. Some require upper and lower case, some require one or more special characters, while some prohibit those same special characters.
May
13
comment random number generator 10-side dice alternative
I suppose I should add that unless your attacker has the opportunity to map out the statistical distribution of generated letters you'll probably have "random enough" passwords to suit your purpose. As far as OTP keys go, be very careful not to take out more than one letter at a time as a shortcut. If I knew you took out 5 letters each time, my search space for testing keys is reduced considerably, and the perfect security of the Vernam cipher is broken.
May
13
answered random number generator 10-side dice alternative
May
13
answered Increased CRC collision probability when adding bits to input message
May
9
awarded  Informed
May
9
comment Winzip AES256 vs PGP
WinZIP has its faults, but being available and convenient are also likely of consideration. Regardless, it's far more important to your security that you're following good key management practices: use a lengthy high entropy passphrase, securely communicated on a separate channel (preferably two or more separate channels, such as half the passphrase spoken over a land-line and half via iMessage.)
May
9
comment encrypt message with one digest 0-9 instead of 01-26
That was a brilliant demonstration of your point!
May
7
comment How to hash a structure that needs to include that hash's outcome?
@mikeazo, if you're going to all that trouble of swapping the checksum, you may as well put the MAC at the end of the structure and omit it from the computation entirely. It's less complexity, less moving parts, less to incorrectly implement, and therefore more secure.
May
4
comment recommendation for steganography tool?
@layla , a histogram is a report of the luminance of the colors in an image. It is not a component of a JPEG image, so your question doesn't really make sense. Do you mean a stego program that alters the quantization entries chosen?
May
3
answered recommendation for steganography tool?
May
3
comment What length should the padding be when encrypting or signing with RSA?
Standard RSA implementations like PKCS#7 and CMS specify random padding to prevent two identical messages from yielding the same output. Is there a difference between what you are trying to accomplish with the salt and the standard implementations?
May
2
comment Knowing a valid salted hash for an unknown secret, is it possible to compute another valid hash?
I'm still guessing at your intent, but it seems like you want to create parallel systems that can yield different digests given the same inputs. Some implementations use unique salt as the differentiator, by taking the hash of message M+"system1", M+"system2", etc. Otherwise you could use different hash algorithms, but that would be complex, confining, and inflexible.
May
1
revised Knowing a valid salted hash for an unknown secret, is it possible to compute another valid hash?
correction
May
1
answered Book Didactic Security Notions
May
1
revised Knowing a valid salted hash for an unknown secret, is it possible to compute another valid hash?
clarified the purpose of salt
May
1
answered Knowing a valid salted hash for an unknown secret, is it possible to compute another valid hash?