Paket: rng-tools-debian (2.1)

daemon to use a Hardware TRNG (classic version)

The rngd daemon acts as a bridge between a Hardware TRNG (true random number generator), such as the ones in some Intel/AMD/VIA chipsets, and the kernel's PRNG (pseudo-random number generator).

It tests the data received from the TRNG using the FIPS 140-2 (2002-10-10) tests to verify that it is indeed random, and feeds the random data to the kernel entropy pool.

This increases the bandwidth of the /dev/random device, from a source that does not depend on outside activity. It may also improve the quality (entropy) of the randomness of /dev/random.

A TRNG kernel module such as hw_random, or some other source of true entropy that is accessible as a device or fifo, is required to use this package.

This is an unofficial version of rng-tools which has been extensively modified to add multithreading and a lot of new functionality. However, most users of newer or high-bandwidth HWRNGs might wish to install the 5.x version of rng-tools, also packaged as rng-tools5, instead; while it lacks some of the new functionality from this version, it offers more performant support for those.