[Cryptech Tech] ubuntu for the win!

[Russ Housley]

Peter:

>> The pages says that it provides a secure way to seed the PRNG.  How?  It does
>> not say how the authentication or trust relationships are handled.
> 
> Depending on how the PRNG is implemented the "secure seeding" could be
> different from what you'd expect, for example using an X9.17-style PRNG you
> don't need a secret seed, just a random one, so contacting a seed server that
> streams out random (but not necessarily secret) values would be sufficient for
> "secure seeding", the seed just takes the place of the X9.17 DT value, the
> date/time vector.

That is true, but it would be bad for a large population to get a constant or near constant.

Russ