schrodingers-rng

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schrodingers-rng

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Creates random numbers using a webcam attached to a smoke alarm

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Schrödinger's RNG
=================

So you don't trust your operating system's random number generator and you 
have blisters on your hands from flipping coins to create bitcoin private keys. 
All your dice have worn out at the corners and every deck of cards you own is 
severely dog-eared.

Whether you need a quantum-tinfoil hat to protect you from malignant hidden 
non-local variables, or you want a slow but steady stream of truly random bits 
generated on your Raspberry Pi then you may and may not need a hardware random 
number generator.

Disclaimers
-----------

This is a toy project and should not be taken seriously. I am not a 
cryptographer and although I have tried to make the minimum number of 
assumptions, a die-rolling or coin-flipping machine would have fewer 
complexities and potential attack vectors.

A paranoid person must assume that processor manufacturers and kernel 
developers are highly vulnerable to infiltration or coercion by military 
intelligence and other state actors, so feeding this into `/dev/random` may not
be enough; for this you must trust your OS and CPU's RNG.

That said, you should exercise even more caution if you choose to use the raw 
values themselves. From what I understand the safest way to use this tool is to 
consider each row a single bit of information, select a column and compare its 
direction from the observed average to decide whether it represents a 0 or a 1.

* Don't mess with the device while it is recording, it may skew the output.
 * Consider each row of output to only have one bit of entropy. A value on the 
   same row is part of the same event and may share information; a frame number
   declares that the X and Y values are not off the screen; the angle of the 
   radiation source may mean that the brightness of an event may leak 
   information about its position, or a given X position may make a Y position 
   more likely.
 * Don't generate random numbers on a machine that has been or will be 
   connected to the Internet and do not keep them for longer than is necessary.

Ingredients
-----------

You will need...

* 1 machine running Linux.
 * The cheapest Linux-compatible webcam money can buy.
 * 1 ionization smoke detector containing americium-241.
 * Any screwdriver except the sexist pink one that you're not allowed to use.
 * A glue gun.
 * Tin / aluminium foil.
 * Insulation / gaffer / BDSM tape.

Instructions
------------

Unscrew the webcam and remove the lens from the sensor. Open the smoke detector,
remove the housing around the radiation source and then the source itself. This
is a thin sheet of film with americium-241 embedded in it and is facing at the
ion detector. **Do not inhale, burn or otherwise let this get into your body, 
it's not good for you**. Affix the radiation source to the webcam sensor and 
glue it in place. Cover the rest of the electronics in glue to prevent shorts 
and then wrap the thing in several layers of foil (probably not necessary but 
I'm paranoid) and then tape it up. Easy-peasy.

Assuming video4linux works with your webcam it should show up as `/dev/video0`
or `/dev/video1` if you already have a webcam. Install `uvcview` 
(`apt-get install guvcview`) or some other webcam viewer and you should observe
a black screen with a pixel flashing in a random location every 10-20 seconds.

Run `./configure` to check for dependencies and create the FIFO queue (needed 
because "streamer" actually lacks streaming output support). You should only 
need to `apt-get install streamer python`, but `pypy` or `jython` are 
recommended for speed/power use (the fastest available interpreter will be 
selected by `./configure`)

Finally, run `./capture` to dump the data out to CSV. If you're trusting then
this can be used to feed your system's random pool, just 
`./capture > /dev/random`.

If you don't trust your system's random pool, and you really shouldn't unless 
you compiled your kernel from source, have audited the source yourself and are
running it on a simulated processor that you understand, then you can pipe the 
output into `filter.py`. The following command will create a random 256-bit 
hexadecimal string:

./capture | ./filter.py --column=2 --length=32

Even the most cynical layman can audit every step to confirm that the random 
bits are indeed coming from the universe and nobody else has seen them:

* Confirm that no white flashes appear on the webcam via streamer before you 
   attach the radiation source.
 * Confirm that flashes do appear in streamer after attaching it.
 * Confirm that your own observations match the observations in the CSV output
 * Confirm that the final output data matches your observations
 * Run it on a machine with no writable disks, Internet connection, network 
   cards and inside a Faraday cage to ensure that you are the only person who
   has ever seen the generated random sequence.

to-do
-----

Todo list and bugs are being held on the project's 
[GitHub issue Tracker](https://github.com/bitplane/schrodingers-rng/issues)

Licensed under the [WTFPL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTFPL) with one
additional clause:

1. Don't blame me.

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