What is the most secure seed for random number generation?

Question

What are the most secure sources of entropy to seed a random number generator? This question is language and platform independent and applies to any machine on a network.

Answer 1

As the consensus is cryptographically strong random numbers must derived form hardware. Some processors have this functionality (Intel chips amonst others). Also sound cards can be used for this by measuring the low-bit fluctuations in the a-d converter.

But due to the hardware needs the is no language and platform independent answer. Pretty much any larger OS will have support for secure random numbers. It is also tricky to implement a good random number generator with good output, since you will have to track the remaining entropy in the pool.

So the first step is to determine what language(s) you will be using. Some do have strong random number support - if this is not the case you would have to abstract the generation to call platform-dependent random sources.

Depending on your security needs be weary of "online" sources since a man-in-the midde can be a serious threat for unauthenticated online sources.