nist-rand 0.1.0

A high-assurance, FIPS 140-3 and NIST SP 800-90A/B/C compliant Cryptographically Secure Pseudorandom Number Generator (CSPRNG) with multi-source entropy blending.
Documentation

nist-rand

Crates.io Documentation License

⚠️ DISCLAIMER: This code is NOT FIPS Verified and has NOT been officially audited by a NIST lab. Furthermore, this code does not receive any formal security audits. It implements the best practices and algorithms described by NIST SP 800-90A/B/C, but does not claim or provide official compliance or certification. Use at your own risk.

A high-assurance, production-ready Cryptographically Secure Pseudorandom Number Generator (CSPRNG) that implements the architectural design and algorithms described in NIST SP 800-90A/B/C.

Features

  • Designed to SP 800-90 Standards: Implements SP 800-90A (Hash_DRBG) using FIPS 202 approved SHA3-512.
  • Deep Entropy Blending (SP 800-90C): Blends entropy from up to 7 distinct sources including OS RNG, CPU Jitter, System state, AVX-256 SIMD timing anomalies, Network latency, Hardware instructions (RDSEED/RDRAND), and CPU Performance Counters.
  • Continuous Health Testing: Strict implementation of SP 800-90B Repetition Count Test (RCT) and Adaptive Proportion Test (APT). Panic-on-fail to ensure FIPS fail-safe requirements.
  • Zeroization: Optional strict zeroization of sensitive internal states and key material upon drop or panic using the zeroize crate.
  • rand_core Compatibility: Seamlessly integrates into the broader Rust ecosystem via the rand_core trait.

Architecture

nist-rand implements a highly defensive, multi-layered entropy architecture:

 ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │                    SP 800-90C Blender                         │
 │  ┌──────────────┐  ┌────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐   │
 │  │ OS RNG       │  │ CPU Jitter     │  │ Hardware/System  │   │
 │  │ /dev/urandom │  │ (advance feat) │  │ perf_events, TSC │   │
 │  │ + 90B tests  │  │ Von Neumann    │  │ (advance feat)   │   │
 │  └──────┬───────┘  └───────┬────────┘  └────────┬─────────┘   │
 │         └──────────────────┴────────────────────┘             │
 │                            │ SHA3-512                         │
 └────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┘
                              │ 512-bit conditioned seed
 ┌────────────────────────────▼──────────────────────────────────┐
 │             Hash_DRBG (SP 800-90A § 10.1.1)                   │
 │                    SHA3-512 (FIPS 202)                        │
 │                reseed every 10 000 requests                   │
 └────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                        fill() / NistRng

Usage

Direct Usage

use nist_rand::fill;

let mut my_key = [0u8; 32];
// Fills the buffer with highly secure pseudorandom bytes.
// Automatically seeds and reseeds securely.
fill(&mut my_key);

With rand_core

If you enable the rand_core feature (enabled by default), you can use it alongside other rand utilities:

use rand_core::RngCore;
use nist_rand::NistRng;

let mut rng = NistRng;
let random_u32 = rng.next_u32();

Crate Features

Feature Default Description
rand_core ✓ Exposes NistRng implementing rand_core 0.10 traits.
advance ✓ Adds CPU jitter, System state, and Hardware RNG (RDSEED/RDRAND, perf_events) + extended 90B health tests.
build_separator ✓ Embeds a random build-time salt (via build.rs) to ensure different binaries yield different entropy streams.
zeroize ✓ Derives ZeroizeOnDrop on internal states; wraps sensitive buffers in Zeroizing so key material is erased even on panic.
exp_simd_rng ✗ Experimental: AVX-256 thermal jitter (implies advance).
exp_network_rng ✗ Experimental: UDP network-latency jitter (implies advance).

SP 800-90 Design Principles

  • Entropy Health: rng::HealthTests runs SP 800-90B RCT + APT tests on raw noise sources.
  • Blending: entropy::get_blended_entropy() uses SHA3-512 as an approved conditioning function (SP 800-90C § 4.1).
  • DRBG: drbg::HashDrbg uses SP 800-90A § 10.1.1 with SHA3-512 (FIPS 202).
  • Reseed Interval: Enforces a strict 10,000 generate limit between reseeds (Table 2).
  • Fail-safe: Implements panic! on catastrophic entropy failure to align with FIPS 140-3 § 9.2 fail-safe requirements.

License

Dual-licensed under either of: