Post
Topic
Board Electrum
Merits 3 from 2 users
Re: Random Number Seed
by
Abdussamad
on 15/11/2022, 15:05:56 UTC
⭐ Merited by Pmalek (2) ,ETFbitcoin (1)
Please read http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5480131/will-python-systemrandom-os-urandom-always-have-enough-entropy-for-good-crypto

/dev/urandom can indeed run out of entropy if it is called repeatedly.
{snip}



Sorry for bumping the old thread.
So does that mean say i repeatedly generate seeds say 100 seeds one after the other before finally deciding the choose the seed for my wallet. Does that make the seed less secure?

no it doesn't. /dev/urandom can generate unlimited cryptographically secure random numbers. it doesn't run out.

It doesn't run out that's true.
But there's something weird definitely.
I tried it. I created seeds in electrum wizard. After 30,40 seeds the wallet closed. (may be randomness was weakening? ) . I again open and tried. Same happened again.
Also the post i quoted. Electrum developer also confirmed /dev/urandom can run out of entropy if it is called repeatedly.
Found similar concern here as well - https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/62871/does-my-electrum-wallet-become-less-secure-if-i-keep-generating-seeds-until-i-se

andrew chow's response there is the correct answer to that question. andrew is a bitcoin core contributor and knows what he's talking about:

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/62894/5273

also  this answer to the stackoverflow question is the correct one:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/5498100

/dev/urandom only needs to be seeded with a small amount of entropy. this happens at bootup. after that it's pseudo random number generator can generator unlimited amount of random numbers.