# Haveged

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.[1]

## List available entropy

If you're not sure, whether you need haveged, run:

    # cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail

This command shows you how much entropy your server has collected. If it is rather low (<1000), you should probably install haveged. Otherwise cryptographic applications will block until there is enough entropy available, which eg. could result in slow wlan speed, if your server is a Software access point.

You should use this command again to verify how much haveged boosted your entropy pool after the installation.

## Installation

Install the haveged package from the official repositories.

## Service

The package provides `haveged.service`, see systemd for details.

Category:

- Security