EntropyKey - miniature Windows driver...?

[Nick Pelling]

Hi Rob,

At 12:38 12/07/2010 +0100, Rob Kendrick wrote:
> > Are there any plans for a Windows driver for the EntropyKey?
>We'd like to, but there are issues.  Mainly that we cannot identify any
>way of providing entropy to Windows in a way where applications can
>automatically take advantage of it.  You can implement a new entropy
>provider, but applications still have to ask for it specifically.

I'm a bit surprised by this - is CryptGenRandom not able to be patched? 
Microsoft now recommends that app programmers replace rand() with rand_s(), 
and my understanding is that the latter calls RtlGenRandom() which in turn 
calls CryptGenRandom(). If you can hook that up, I'd have thought many 
current apps would get immediate access to the EntropyKey's output stream. 
Perhaps that would be good enough?

>Indeed; I suspect if we do a Windows driver, it will simply be in the
>form of a library.  Which is a shame.

Still, it's a big old market out there. :-)

>We'll happily help any third party that wishes to develop Windows
>driver software for the Entropy Key, however.  Much of the UNIX driver
>should be easily portable to Windows (for example, the protocol
>handlers, etc.)

I'd be interested to have a peek at this, to see how nasty it is (or isn't) 
- please email me whatever details you reasonable can (and an NDA for 
anything you can't :-) ). If it presents itself as a virtual serial port 
(FTDI-style), it shouldn't be _that_ hard to work with, should it?

Cheers, ....Nick Pelling.... // Nanodome Ltd