RNDTEST(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual RNDTEST(4)NAME
rndtest — FIPS 140-2 random number generator test monitor
SYNOPSIS
device rndtest
DESCRIPTION
The rndtest driver “hooks up” to hardware crypto devices to monitor the
entropy data passed to the random(4) subsystem. This data is periodi‐
cally tested for FIPS 140-2 compliance and statistics are collected. If
the harvested entropy fails any of the FIPS test suite, then it is dis‐
carded and testing is continuously applied until “good data” is received
from the device. Failures are optionally reported on the console.
SEE ALSOcrypto(4), hifn(4), random(4), safe(4), ubsec(4), crypto(9)HISTORY
The idea for this and the original code came from Jason L. Wright. The
rndtest device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.
BUGS
Crypto device drivers must be compiled specially to make use of this
driver; this should not be necessary. This feature might better be inte‐
grated into the random(4) subsystem where it can be applied to devices
that claim to supply “pure entropy”.
BSD March 11, 2003 BSD