Mathematicians from Europe and the United States are reporting a flaw in the RSA encryption method that apparently hinges on crypto keys being created with insufficient randomness. Enter Intel’s Bull Mountain technology. Bull Mountain is a hardware based digital random number generator which will be released this year when the processor, code named “Ivy Bridge” is launched. Bull Mountain allows digital random numbers to be generated at near clock cycle speeds and with a very high degree of randomness or “entropy”. Read more >

Developers are urged to find these kinds of bugs using tools such as Intel Static Security Analysis, and then make it a practice to validate all inputs and replace unsafe functions (strcpy, strncpy, strcat, and gets, among others) with safe counterparts. To learn more about steps you can take as a developer to reduce your exposure to security attacks go to the Department of Homeland Security’s Build Security In website or visit the Common Weakness Evaluation site. Read more >