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Subject: Re: one time pad and random num gen
From: Enzo Michelangeli (emwho.net)
Date: Fri Oct 06 2000 - 10:02:00 CDT

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Ashwood" <ashwoodmsn.com>
To: "Enzo Michelangeli" <emwho.net>; "E. van der Koogh"
<vdkooghmediaport.org>
Cc: <coderpunkstoad.com>; "John Kedzie" <johnkedziehotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: one time pad and random num gen

[...]
> I believe the point was that with a PRNG you immediately violate the
> proof of OTP.

OK, one can't use the OTP name in this case without committing sin of
"snake oiliness", but also stream ciphers can be useful, can't they?

> And EVERY (stream cipher useful) PRNG produces patterns, it's just a
> matter of how long until it does. They all have limited states, when
> those states are exhausted the state must be set to a previous visited
> state, and a pattern will be present.

But if the cycle is long enough (which is the case for PRNG's defined as
"good"), it may not be observable in many eons. And anyway, PRNG's may be
(and usually are) reseeded periodically with a few bits of truly random
data, disrupting any cyclic behaviour.

Enzo