Random seed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A random seed (or seed state) is a number (or vector) used to initialize a pseudorandom number generator.
The choice of a good random seed is crucial in computer security - when a secret encryption key is pseudorandomly generated, a way to find it is to look for the seed used.
Random seeds are often generated from the state of the computer system (such as the time), or from a hardware random number generator.
If the same random seed is deliberately shared, two or more systems using matching pseudorandom number algorithms and matching seeds can generate matching sequences of non-repeating numbers which can be used to synchronize remote systems, such as GPS satellites and receivers.
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