# USB TRNG Yesterday I had a blast presenting my talk [Security not by chance: the AltusMetrum hardware true random number generator][usbtrng-dc14] at [DebConf14][dc14]. DebConf 14 [USB TRNG][usbtrng] is a collaborative effort with [AltusMetrum][altusmetrum] to create a completely open hardware and Free software true random number generator. I my talk I mention the rationale for gathering more entropy: The Linux urandom boot-time entropy hole as described in the paper [Mining Your Ps and Qs: Detection of Widespread Weak Keys in Network Devices][ehole]. I also mention some of the difficulty in assessing RNG quality for security applications as highlighted by Matthew Green in his blog post [How do you know if an RNG is working?][greenrng]. I've been lucky to work on this design with [Bdale Garbee][bdale] and [Keith Packard][keithp]. If you'd like to learn more you can... * Download the presentation (see below) * Check out the web page for [USB TRNG][usbtrng] * Join us on IRC OFTC #altusmetrum * Join the [trng mailing list][trng] Let [[me|/tmarble]] know if you'd like to get involved! ## links * Presentation as PDF: [[usbtrng.pdf|usbtrng.pdf]] * Presentation video: Soon to be uploaded by the amazing [Debian Video Team][debvideo]. [usbtrng-dc14]: https://summit.debconf.org/debconf14/meeting/20/security-not-by-chance-the-altusmetrum-hardware-true-random-number-generator/ [dc14]: http://debconf14.debconf.org/ [altusmetrum]: http://altusmetrum.org/ [bdale]: http://gag.com/bdale [keithp]: http://keithp.com/keithp [trng]: http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/trng [usbtrng]: http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/trng [debvideo]: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf14/Videostream#Recordings [ehole]: https://factorable.net/weakkeys12.extended.pdf [greenrng]: http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2014/03/how-do-you-know-if-rng-is-working.html [[!tag debian debconf altusmetrum security]]