It’s common to think of random numbers as being an essential building block in security systems. Cryptographic session keys are chosen at random, then shared with the remote party. Security protocols use “nonces” for “freshness”. In addition, randomness can slow down information gathering attacks, although here they are seldom a panacea. However, as George Danezis and I recently explained in “Route Fingerprinting in Anonymous Communications” randomness can lead to uniqueness — exactly the property you don’t want in an anonymity system.
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