Statistical Testing of Random Number Generators

Published

October 19, 1999

Author(s)

D L. Banks

Abstract

Random Number Generators (RNGs) are an important building block for algorithms and protocols in cryptography. They are paramount in the construction of encryption keys and other cryptographic algorithm parameters. In practice, statistical testing is employed to gather evidence that a generator indeed produces numbers that appear to be random. Few resources are readily available to researchers in academia and industry who wish to analyze their newly developed RNG. To address this problem, NIST has developed new metrics that may be employed to investigate the randomness of cryptographic RNGs. In this paper, issues such as statistical test suites, evaluation frameworks, and the interpretation of results are addressed.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 22nd National Information Systems Security Conference

Conference Dates

October 18-21, 1999

Conference Title

National Information Systems Security Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

random number generators, randomness, statistical tests

Citation

Banks, D. (1999), Statistical Testing of Random Number Generators, Proceedings of the 22nd National Information Systems Security Conference (Accessed April 18, 2024)