Pitfall in producing random numbers

[norm@netcom.com (Norman Hardy)]

I think that it was on the cypherpunks list that I learned of how PGP for
the IBM PC, running under emulation on the Mac failed to produce good
random numbers. The virtual PC clock proceeded forward by very predictable
manner. Perhaps the details were different but the nature of the pitfall is
clear. I did not notice that pitfall mentioned in RFC 1750. (Its the only
hazard that I know of that they missed.)

The only thing I can think of protecting against this is to do some simple
checks against more obvious ways that virtual clocks might produce times.
Low order bits should not always be zero. The differences between
successive readings should not be constant. Two clock readings separated by
a computation of known length should be within a factor of a few of the
expected value. If not try again once or twice.

Such tests are imperfect but I think that they would have noticed the
virtual clock on the virtual PC. If they fail the program can require the
user to enter the seed, with all that that entails.