4 ms·
I'd have called that a PRNG, because to me there were only two main categories. Pseudo-random, where it's designed to be unpredictable, and actually random wher
by IanCal 9y ago
I'd have called that a PRNG, because to me there were only two main categories. Pseudo-random, where it's designed to be unpredictable, and actually random where it is based on an external hardware source of true random information.
A CSPRNG is surely a type of PRNG. Is that not right?
Their comment doesn't really seem correct to me. The title is "Cracking random number generators (xoroshiro128+)" which seems pretty accurate to me. The article definitely doesn't seem to say it's breaking anything other than a very specific, flawed random number generator.
- tptacek 9y agoI'd have added "Cryptographically secure" and not capitalized "pseudo", but that's small-stakes stuff. The point he's making is the most important safety point on this topic.
- pbnjay 9y agoDuly noted! I'm not in this field, but I know enough to know what not to do (most of the time).
- raverbashing 9y ago> A CSPRNG is surely a type of PRNG. Is that not right? Yes. In the same way the POTUS limousine is a car
- alphaalpha101 9y ago>I'd have called that a PRNG, because to me there were only two main categories. Pseudo-random, where it's designed to be unpredictable, and actually random where it is based on an external hardware source of true random information. PRNGs produce numbers that seem hard to predict. CSPRNGs product numbers that actually are hard to predict, assuming P != NP (kind of).