LETRNG—A Lightweight and Efficient True Random Number Generator for GNU/Linux Systems

Unpredictable and irreproducible digital keys are required to modulate security-related information in secure communication systems. True random number generators (TRNGs) rather than pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs) are required for the highest level of security. TRNG is a significant component in the digital security realm for extracting unpredictable binary bitstreams. Presently, most TRNGs extract high-quality “noise” from unpredictable physical random phenomena. Thus, these applications must be equipped with external hardware for collecting entropy and converting them into a random digital sequence. This study introduces a lightweight and efficient true random number generator (LETRNG) that uses the inherent randomness of a central processing unit (CPU) and an operating system (OS) as the source of entropy. We then utilize a lightweight post-processing method based on XOR and fair coin operation to generate an unbiased random binary sequence. Evaluations based on two famous test suites (NIST and ENT) show that LETRNG is perfectly capable of generating high-quality random numbers suitable for various GNU/Linux systems.