[Cryptography Team] Re: Fortuna

[Ron Teitelbaum]

> From: Chris Muller
> Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 9:38 PM

> and Fortuna and, now, SecureRandom, override the proper methods
> accordingly.  Though Fortuna is "done" I never did post it to the Crypto
> library yet because I got side-tracked earlier this year to do the
> (significant) query's function for Magma.  Also, I didn't think there
> would be much interest in it.  If there is, I'll see about packaging it up
> and posting it.

Please do it will be an excellent starting point!

> I don't see how its possible to know whether the image has been tampered
> since it's been launched unless you have special hardware or, at least,
> special VM (but then how could the VM know it was not modified to not
> validate itself?).  It sounds even harder than knowing for sure if one is
> not truly crazy, or living in a simulated world (http://www.simulation-
> argument.com/), for example..  :)

The argument is silly since the logic is circular and demonstrates Theorem 8
in symbolic logic.  My favorite example of the sound logic of these
statements is: If the universe doesn't exist then I am king of the world.
Sure it's true but not very useful!  As for the VM there are some good
techniques that can be used to lock it down.  If Java could do it then we
can too!  We just need to take this on one step at a time and put ourselves
on a reasonable path towards improvement.

It's nice to hear form you!  If you have time I would love to see your
participation in our validation project.  

Ron