haveged (a simple entropy-gathering daemon) The haveged project is an attempt to provide an easy-to-use, unpredictable random number generator based upon an adaptation of the HAVEGE algorithm. Haveged was created to remedy low-entropy conditions in the Linux random device that can occur under some workloads, especially on headless servers. The HAVEGE algorithm is based upon the indirect effects of unrelated hardware events on the instruction timing of a calculation that is sensitive to processor features such as branch predictors and instruction/data access mechanisms. Samples from a high-resolution timer are input into the algorithm to produce a stream of random data in a collection buffer. The contents of this buffer can be fed into the random device or accessed directly through the file system. File system access is a useful alternative to those situations where use of the random device is either inappropriate or not available. Add the following snippet to your /etc/rc.d/rc.M to start up haveged at boot: # Starting HAVEGED entropy daemon if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.haveged ]; then /etc/rc.d/rc.haveged start fi You can see how many bits of entropy are available to the system by reading the /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail file, and check the size of your entropy pool at /proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize.