From: Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@stud.uni-muenchen.de>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 01:01:46 -0700 (PDT)
To: David Honig <honig@m7.sprynet.com>
Subject: Re: encrypted FM radio hiss
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980727110437.007b8100@m7.sprynet.com>
Message-ID: <35BED6DF.F2EF9BC5@stud.uni-muenchen.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


David Honig wrote:
> 
> At 10:40 AM 7/28/98 +0100, Mok-Kong Shen wrote:
> >David Honig wrote:
> >
> >> The output of a good block cipher in feedback mode will pass Diehard tests,
> >> though it is not crypto-secure.
> >
> >I often see the phrase 'pass Diehard test' though I don't see from
> >the documents of Diehard how to evaluate the volumenous printout
> >of Diehard to say exactly whether the test is passed or not. Furthermore
> >the component asc2bin.exe of Diehard is buggy.

> 
> My rough understanding: the 'P' value is a measure on the hypothesis that
> the test sample is a truly random sample, where truly random is defined by
> the expected
> statistical properties being measured.  Eg in 100 bits you expect to find
> 50 1's;
> if you count 48, is your 100-bit sample consistant with it being
> unpredictable?

My concrete problem is: With the bunch of p-values how does one
(in accordance with the intention of the designer of the package)
go about to determine that the test is passed at a certain confidence
level. I don't see anything in the documents instructing the user
to do this. Maybe I indeed missed something. Please point that out
in this case.

M. K. Shen