Auditable Random Number Generation for Gaming Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gaming applications using pseudo-random number generators face security challenges due to predictability and the risk of malicious actors manipulating outcomes, with existing solutions like continuous pseudo-random number generators and certified chips being insufficient for high-speed environments and central game hosts vulnerable to malicious access.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for secure, auditable random number generation in server/client gaming environments, where a game host determines the need for re-seeding a pseudo-random number generator based on the quantity of generated numbers and elapsed time, using an auditable random number generator to ensure unpredictability and integrity, with re-seeding triggered by demand or time intervals, and audit logs for post-event verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a pseudo-random number generator is run continuously at high speed, then the speed of random number generation is improved, but the predictability increases making it easier for malicious actors to predict outcomes
Solution Approach 1:
The system periodically re-seeds the pseudo-random number generator with new seed values from an auditable random number generator. This periodic re-seeding interrupts the continuous generation process, resetting the internal state and making future predictions impossible without knowing the new seed, thereby maintaining unpredictability while allowing high-speed operation between re-seeding events.
Solution Approach 2:
An auditable random number generator serves as an intermediary that periodically provides new seed values to the pseudo-random number generator. This intermediary component ensures that the main RNG remains unpredictable by introducing fresh entropy from a trusted source, while allowing the pseudo-random generator to operate at high speed using deterministic algorithms between re-seeding events.
2Reliability
If certified chips with burned algorithms are used, then the security and integrity of the algorithm is improved, but the device complexity and difficulty of verification increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of relying on physically embedded certified chips that are difficult to verify, the system uses software-based auditable random number generators that can be copied and verified through audit logs. The audit logs provide a digital record that can be independently verified, replacing the need for complex physical verification of embedded algorithms while maintaining integrity through cryptographic auditing mechanisms.
3Reliability
If an auditable random number generator is used, then the security and auditability is improved, but the speed of random number generation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the random number generation process into two distinct components: an auditable random number generator that periodically generates seed values with full auditability, and a pseudo-random number generator that operates at high speed using deterministic algorithms. This segmentation allows each component to optimize for its specific function - the auditable generator for security and verification, and the pseudo-random generator for speed and performance.
Data Source
AI summary
Various aspects are directed to random, number generation. A request from a game terminal for a random number may be received. Whether a new seed is required may be determined, for example, based on the time or quantity of random numbers generated since the last re-seeding. Conditioned on determining that the new seed is required, a pseudo-random number generator may re-seeded, wherein the re-seeding comprises setting a current seed value equal to the new seed. The pseudo-random number generator may generate a random number based at least in part on the current seed value; and transmit information based on the random number to the game terminal.