DOS ain't dead

GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS (Announce)

posted by bencollver , 31.05.2024, 00:17

I wanted to spot check the quality of the random numbers generated by NOISE.SYS

I read that:

> Statistically testing a PRNG requires quite a lot (10 or even 100 GB)...

> All tests of RNGs are based on a "null hypothesis", meaning if they
> fail, they show the RNG may be flawed. But if they pass, it does
> not mean it is good.

Keeping these in mind, i decided that ENT was good enough for me.

ENT home page
https://www.fourmilab.ch/random/

ENT DJGPP build
gopher://tilde.pink/9/~bencollver/files/dos386/util/gnupg/ent14.zip

Comparing the resulting Chi-square percentages:

* Linux has 93.44% (almost suspect) and
* NOISE.SYS has 97.88% (suspect).

This seems to indicate a problem in NOISE.SYS.
I'm a hacker not a cryptographer, so i don't know how to fix it.

Linux
=====
$ dd if=/dev/random of=linux.dat bs=1024 count=1024
$ ent <linux.dat
    Entropy = 7.999848 bits per byte.
   
    Optimum compression would reduce the size
    of this 1048576 byte file by 0 percent.
   
    Chi square distribution for 1048576 samples is 221.79, and randomly
    would exceed this value 93.44 percent of the times.
   
    Arithmetic mean value of data bytes is 127.4089 (127.5 = random).
    Monte Carlo value for Pi is 3.143658232 (error 0.07 percent).
    Serial correlation coefficient is 0.001572 (totally uncorrelated = 0.0).

FreeDOS
=======
C:\NOISE>busy.bat
C:\NOISE>sample.exe noise.dat 1048576 -ar

Repeat this hundreds of times until noise.dat reaches the desired size.

C:\ENT>ent <C:\NOISE\NOISE.DAT
    Entropy = 7.999855 bits per byte.
   
    Optimum compression would reduce the size
    of this 1048576 byte file by 0 percent.
   
    Chi square distribution for 1048576 samples is 211.27, and randomly
    would exceed this value 97.88 percent of the times.
   
    Arithmetic mean value of data bytes is 127.5550 (127.5 = random).
    Monte Carlo value for Pi is 3.146267495 (error 0.15 percent).
    Serial correlation coefficient is 0.000964 (totally uncorrelated = 0.0).

Complete thread:

• GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 08.05.2024, 07:03 (Announce)
  • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 08.05.2024, 11:09
    • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 08.05.2024, 16:48
      • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 08.05.2024, 18:20
        • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 08.05.2024, 22:19
          • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 09.05.2024, 05:18
            • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 09.05.2024, 12:48
              • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 09.05.2024, 16:32
                • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 09.05.2024, 17:11
                  • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 09.05.2024, 19:30
                    • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 09.05.2024, 21:08
                      • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 09.05.2024, 23:32
                        • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 10.05.2024, 19:10
                          • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - RayeR, 14.05.2024, 20:49
                            • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 14.05.2024, 22:36
                              • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - RayeR, 14.05.2024, 23:55
                                • NSA is coming to get you (and your cat)! - Rugxulo, 15.05.2024, 06:21
                                  • NSA is coming to get you (and your cat)! - rosegondon, 15.05.2024, 11:48
                                    • NSA is coming to get you (and your cat)! - RayeR, 15.05.2024, 17:40
                        • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 10.05.2024, 19:30
                          • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 11.05.2024, 20:44
                          • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 13.05.2024, 07:12
                            • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 14.05.2024, 01:31
                              • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 14.05.2024, 09:53
                                • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 14.05.2024, 17:04
                                  • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 14.05.2024, 18:33
                                  • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 15.05.2024, 11:43
                                    • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 15.05.2024, 17:00
                                  • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 16.05.2024, 07:13
                                    • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 17.05.2024, 02:20
                                      • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 17.05.2024, 07:31
                                        • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 17.05.2024, 16:14
                                          • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 17.05.2024, 18:38
                                            • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 17.05.2024, 19:22
                                              • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 17.05.2024, 22:03
                                              • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 17.05.2024, 22:17
                                                • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 19.05.2024, 05:53
                                              • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 17.05.2024, 22:31
                                                • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 19.05.2024, 05:10
                                                  • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - rosegondon, 20.05.2024, 21:04
                                                    • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 20.05.2024, 21:53
  • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 31.05.2024, 00:17
    • GnuPG 1.4.23 for DOS - bencollver, 31.05.2024, 02:04