The sys admin’s daily grind: haveged Random Release
Random Release
Practical cryptography is often an encounter with many random numbers in just a few moments. Entropy is the raw material that gives birth to the random number, but it’s harder to come by than you might think.
Creating havoc with a computer is an easy thing to do, but today, I need a more ordered kind of chaos: entropy. I need to generate high-quality random numbers with minimal predictability. Anybody who plumbs the depths of cryptographic functions will need a good and fast entropy generator at some time, say, to make sure that keys really are generated from genuinely random data, rather than predictable numbers.
You need to be creative to achieve high-quality entropy. Creative people have invented methods for generating random numbers from the bubbles in a lava lamp, the noise generated by feedback from a microphone input, and the luminance values of a camera sensor in a closed black box. All of these work really well, but they’re slow.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.