Critical Analysis of Hypothesis Tests in Federal Information Processing Standard (140-2)

Entropy (Basel). 2022 Apr 27;24(5):613. doi: 10.3390/e24050613.

Abstract

This work presents an analysis of the existing dependencies between the tests of the FIPS 140-2 battery. Two main analytical approaches are utilized, the first being a study of correlations through the Pearson's correlation coefficient that detects linear dependencies, and the second one being a novel application of the mutual information measure that allows detecting possible non-linear relationships. In order to carry out this study, the FIPS 140-2 battery is reimplemented to allow the user to obtain p-values and statistics that are essential for more rigorous end-user analysis of random number generators (RNG).

Keywords: Dieharder; ENT; FIPS 140-2; NIST SP 800-22; TestU01; correlation; independence; mutual information; p-value; randomness; statistic.