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This document points out many pitfalls in using poor entropy sources or traditional pseudo-random number generation techniques for generating such quantities. It recommends the use of truly random hardware techniques and shows that the existing hardware on many systems can be used for this purpose. It provides suggestions to ameliorate the problem when a hardware solution is not available, and it gives examples of how large such quantities need to be for some applications. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.", "abstract$meta": { "confidence": "high", "note": "Parsed from RFC index XML abstract", "originalValue": null, "source": "parsed", "sourceUrl": "https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4086/", "updated": "2026-10-09T15:38:44.276Z", "version": "extractDocs.js@commit:12c59e0e1847" }, "authors": [ { "name": "Donald E. Eastlake 3rd" }, { "name": "Jeffrey I. Schiller" }, { "name": "Steve Crocker" } ], "authors$meta": { "confidence": "high", "note": "Parsed from Datatracker doc page article:author (profile full names)", "originalValue": null, "source": "parsed", "sourceUrl": "https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4086/", "updated": "2026-10-09T15:38:44.276Z", "version": "extractDocs.js@commit:12c59e0e1847" }, "docId": "RFC4086", "docId$meta": { "confidence": "high", "note": "Derived from RFC number or Datatracker identifier", "originalValue": null, "source": "resolved", "sourceUrl": "https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4086/", "updated": "2026-10-09T15:38:44.276Z", "version": "extractDocs.js@commit:12c59e0e1847" }, "docLabel": "IETF RFC 4086", "docLabel$meta": { "confidence": "high", "note": "Constructed from provider and document identifier", "originalValue": null, "source": "resolved", "sourceUrl": "https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4086/", "updated": "2026-10-09T15:38:44.276Z", "version": "extractDocs.js@commit:12c59e0e1847" }, "docNumber": 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