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 periodically tested for FIPS 140-2 compliance and statistics are
     collected.  If the harvested entropy fails any of the FIPS test suite, then it is discarded and testing is
     continuously applied until “good data” is received from the device.  Failures are optionally reported on
     the console.

SEE ALSO

     crypto(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 integrated into the random(4) subsystem where it can be applied to devices
     that claim to supply “pure entropy”.