Horst von Brand wrote:
>Adding stuff that adds no entropy (or at least doesn't add to the estimated
>entropy pool) is just a waste of effort, AFAIKS.
Adding stuff that has no entropy is a waste of effort.
Adding stuff that probably has entropy, but where you don't bump
the entropy counter, *does* add value.
The entropy counter is a conservative estimate of how much entropy
you can safely rely on being present.
It's still useful to add more entropy to the pool -- even if
it's not reflected in the counter -- because it reduces the chances
of a catastrophic randomness failure.
(What if you over-estimated, or if one of your sources failed and
became predictable, e.g., because the attacker started jamming your
GPS from a van parked outside your building?)
It pays to be (prudently) paranoid, in this business.
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