On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 03:37:37AM +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote: > On 2013-04-23 20:06:10 -0500, Derek Martin wrote: > > Using the message store or any part of the message store is not a > > workable solution. > > I disagree.
The security experts all agree on this... if you try to implement something like that, it will not withstand a rigorous security audit. > The entropy is typically created from untrusted data. Only indirectly, in a way that an attacker can not control without direct access to the target's hardware. On anything resembling a modern system, entropy is generally generated by measuring hardware timings (disk access, key presses, etc.), reading electrical noise from sound hardware, and other similar things that an attacker has no control over--unless they have physical access to the hardware, in which case you already pretty much lose. > Note that message headers generally contain random data from different > machines; It's NOT random. It's very predictable, if you're familiar with the receiver's site. And if you (the attacker) are AT the receiver's site (i.e. you're another user on the public server they're using to get their mail), all you need to do to get an EXACT COPY of the message is to CC yourself. You MUST NOT use the message as a source of randomness. -- Derek D. Martin http://www.pizzashack.org/ GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02 -=-=-=-=- This message is posted from an invalid address. Replying to it will result in undeliverable mail due to spam prevention. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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