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user1449
user1449

I'm using a random number generator that requires me to pass it a big (several kilobytes) pool of random data for initialization.

I've gathered entropy from various system metrics (free memory, system clock, mac address .etc) and generated a 64-bit seed value which I need to "stretch" over the big memory pool.

Whats the best way to spread this small amount of entropy over the big pool? I've considered something like RC4 encrypting a null (0x00) buffer with a stream cipher using the seed as the key. Is that a safe approach?

I'm using a random number generator that requires me to pass it a big (several kilobytes) pool of random data for initialization.

I've gathered entropy from various system metrics (free memory, system clock, mac address .etc) and generated a 64-bit seed value which I need to "stretch" over the big memory pool.

Whats the best way to spread this small amount of entropy over the big pool? I've considered something like RC4 encrypting a null (0x00) buffer with a stream cipher using the seed as the key. Is that a safe approach?

I'm using a random number generator that requires me to pass it a big (several kilobytes) pool of random data for initialization.

I've gathered entropy from various system metrics (free memory, system clock, mac address .etc) and generated a 64-bit seed value which I need to "stretch" over the big memory pool.

Whats the best way to spread this small amount of entropy over the big pool? I've considered something like encrypting a null (0x00) buffer with a stream cipher using the seed as the key. Is that a safe approach?

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user1449
user1449

Stretching a random seed to maximize entropy

I'm using a random number generator that requires me to pass it a big (several kilobytes) pool of random data for initialization.

I've gathered entropy from various system metrics (free memory, system clock, mac address .etc) and generated a 64-bit seed value which I need to "stretch" over the big memory pool.

Whats the best way to spread this small amount of entropy over the big pool? I've considered something like RC4 encrypting a null (0x00) buffer with a stream cipher using the seed as the key. Is that a safe approach?