Hack the Planet = Hack a Camera?
A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
11–20 of 157 posts
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#12It's open to the public‽ Seems like a bad idea to let a potential spy in there to set up a camera and de-randomize this source of random info. Also, the headline on HN declares it a fact that the lava lamps are assisting in the encryption, but the article is careful to say "maybe", "might", etc. This seems wildly insecure and much more likely to represent a weak link than to actually aid in randomness.
The nice thing about randomness is that given a random blob, you can xor a non random blob & it's just as random. So this is one input of entropy amongst a cocktail of sources
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#13It's open to the public‽ Seems like a bad idea to let a potential spy in there to set up a camera and de-randomize this source of random info. Also, the headline on HN declares it a fact that the lava lamps are assisting in the encryption, but the article is careful to say "maybe", "might", etc. This seems wildly insecure and much more likely to represent a weak link than to actually aid in randomness.
It's answered here: https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty...
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#14Hack the Planet = Hack a Camera?
Ah, apparently, based on one of the detailed links just posted, it just provides one feed of entropy to the mix -- not the sole source.
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#15It's open to the public‽ Seems like a bad idea to let a potential spy in there to set up a camera and de-randomize this source of random info. Also, the headline on HN declares it a fact that the lava lamps are assisting in the encryption, but the article is careful to say "maybe", "might", etc. This seems wildly insecure and much more likely to represent a weak link than to actually aid in randomness.
The nice thing about randomness is that given a random blob, you can xor a non random blob & it's just as random. So this is one input of entropy amongst a cocktail of sources
That’s true statically. Keeping that true with changes over time is HARD. For example, it matters that the non random blob never gets to see either the random input or the output.
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#16It's open to the public‽ Seems like a bad idea to let a potential spy in there to set up a camera and de-randomize this source of random info. Also, the headline on HN declares it a fact that the lava lamps are assisting in the encryption, but the article is careful to say "maybe", "might", etc. This seems wildly insecure and much more likely to represent a weak link than to actually aid in randomness.
You would also need to eavesdrop on a geiger counter in Singapore that's measuring radiation, and a chaotic pendulum in London: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90137157/the-hardest-working-of...
The effort involved in doing this would maybe be as taxing as brute-forcing the keys in the first place. It seems gimmicky but they're almost surely producing reliable random data that would be almost impossible to simulate otherwise.
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#17I might be prejudiced, but this looks like a big PR stunt/done for the cool factor kind of thing. Aren't there simpler/saner alternatives for getting good randomness?
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#18I might be prejudiced, but this looks like a big PR stunt/done for the cool factor kind of thing. Aren't there simpler/saner alternatives for getting good randomness?
What would be an easier way? A wall of lava lamps seems pretty easy to set up.
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#19It's open to the public‽ Seems like a bad idea to let a potential spy in there to set up a camera and de-randomize this source of random info. Also, the headline on HN declares it a fact that the lava lamps are assisting in the encryption, but the article is careful to say "maybe", "might", etc. This seems wildly insecure and much more likely to represent a weak link than to actually aid in randomness.
The nice thing about randomness is that given a random blob, you can xor a non random blob & it's just as random. So this is one input of entropy amongst a cocktail of sources
Actually that's the property of xor, not randomness. Data xor uniform distribution -> results in uniform distribution. It doesn't have to be random.
Re: A wall of lava lamps helps encrypt the internet
#20It's open to the public‽ Seems like a bad idea to let a potential spy in there to set up a camera and de-randomize this source of random info. Also, the headline on HN declares it a fact that the lava lamps are assisting in the encryption, but the article is careful to say "maybe", "might", etc. This seems wildly insecure and much more likely to represent a weak link than to actually aid in randomness.
Even if the data is not random it doesn't weaken your kernel prng by writing non-random data to urandom. Don't overcomplicate your threat model with non-existent risks