Security
The security of a cryptosystem's CSPRNG is significant because it is the origin for dynamic key material. Keys needed "on the fly", such as the AES TLS session keys that protect HTTPS sessions with bank websites, originate from CSPRNGs. If these pseudorandom numbers are predictable, session keys are predictable as well. Because CryptGenRandom is the de facto standard CSPRNG in Win32 environments, its security is critical for Windows users.
The specifics of CryptGenRandom's algorithm have not been officially published. As with any unpublished random number generation algorithm, it may be susceptible to theoretical weaknesses including the use of outdated algorithms, and a reliance for entropy gathering on several monotonically-increasing counters that might be estimated or controlled to an extent by an attacker with local access to the system.
Read more about this topic: Crypt Gen Random
Famous quotes containing the word security:
“The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)
“There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust.”
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—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)