1 .\" $NetBSD: openssl_rand.3,v 1.14 2015/06/12 17:01:15 christos Exp $
3 .\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 2.28 (Pod::Simple 3.28)
6 .\" ========================================================================
7 .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
11 .de Vb \" Begin verbatim text
16 .de Ve \" End verbatim text
20 .\" Set up some character translations and predefined strings. \*(-- will
21 .\" give an unbreakable dash, \*(PI will give pi, \*(L" will give a left
22 .\" double quote, and \*(R" will give a right double quote. \*(C+ will
23 .\" give a nicer C++. Capital omega is used to do unbreakable dashes and
24 .\" therefore won't be available. \*(C` and \*(C' expand to `' in nroff,
25 .\" nothing in troff, for use with C<>.
27 .ds C+ C\v'-.1v'\h'-1p'\s-2+\h'-1p'+\s0\v'.1v'\h'-1p'
31 . if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=24u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-12u'-\" diablo 10 pitch
32 . if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=20u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-8u'-\" diablo 12 pitch
47 .\" Escape single quotes in literal strings from groff's Unicode transform.
51 .\" If the F register is turned on, we'll generate index entries on stderr for
52 .\" titles (.TH), headers (.SH), subsections (.SS), items (.Ip), and index
53 .\" entries marked with X<> in POD. Of course, you'll have to process the
54 .\" output yourself in some meaningful fashion.
56 .\" Avoid warning from groff about undefined register 'F'.
60 .if \n(.g .if rF .nr rF 1
61 .if (\n(rF:(\n(.g==0)) \{
64 . tm Index:\\$1\t\\n%\t"\\$2"
74 .\" Accent mark definitions (@(#)ms.acc 1.5 88/02/08 SMI; from UCB 4.2).
75 .\" Fear. Run. Save yourself. No user-serviceable parts.
76 . \" fudge factors for nroff and troff
85 . ds #H ((1u-(\\\\n(.fu%2u))*.13m)
91 . \" simple accents for nroff and troff
101 . ds ' \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\'\h"|\\n:u"
102 . ds ` \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\`\h'|\\n:u'
103 . ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'^\h'|\\n:u'
104 . ds , \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10)',\h'|\\n:u'
105 . ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu-\*(#H-.1m)'~\h'|\\n:u'
106 . ds / \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\z\(sl\h'|\\n:u'
108 . \" troff and (daisy-wheel) nroff accents
109 .ds : \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H+.1m+\*(#F)'\v'-\*(#V'\z.\h'.2m+\*(#F'.\h'|\\n:u'\v'\*(#V'
110 .ds 8 \h'\*(#H'\(*b\h'-\*(#H'
111 .ds o \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu+\w'\(de'u-\*(#H)/2u'\v'-.3n'\*(#[\z\(de\v'.3n'\h'|\\n:u'\*(#]
112 .ds d- \h'\*(#H'\(pd\h'-\w'~'u'\v'-.25m'\f2\(hy\fP\v'.25m'\h'-\*(#H'
113 .ds D- D\\k:\h'-\w'D'u'\v'-.11m'\z\(hy\v'.11m'\h'|\\n:u'
114 .ds th \*(#[\v'.3m'\s+1I\s-1\v'-.3m'\h'-(\w'I'u*2/3)'\s-1o\s+1\*(#]
115 .ds Th \*(#[\s+2I\s-2\h'-\w'I'u*3/5'\v'-.3m'o\v'.3m'\*(#]
116 .ds ae a\h'-(\w'a'u*4/10)'e
117 .ds Ae A\h'-(\w'A'u*4/10)'E
118 . \" corrections for vroff
119 .if v .ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*9/10-\*(#H)'\s-2\u~\d\s+2\h'|\\n:u'
120 .if v .ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'\v'-.4m'^\v'.4m'\h'|\\n:u'
121 . \" for low resolution devices (crt and lpr)
122 .if \n(.H>23 .if \n(.V>19 \
135 .\" ========================================================================
138 .TH rand 3 "2009-07-19" "1.0.1n" "OpenSSL"
139 .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
140 .\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
144 rand \- pseudo\-random number generator
148 .IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
150 \& #include <openssl/rand.h>
152 \& int RAND_set_rand_engine(ENGINE *engine);
154 \& int RAND_bytes(unsigned char *buf, int num);
155 \& int RAND_pseudo_bytes(unsigned char *buf, int num);
157 \& void RAND_seed(const void *buf, int num);
158 \& void RAND_add(const void *buf, int num, int entropy);
159 \& int RAND_status(void);
161 \& int RAND_load_file(const char *file, long max_bytes);
162 \& int RAND_write_file(const char *file);
163 \& const char *RAND_file_name(char *file, size_t num);
165 \& int RAND_egd(const char *path);
167 \& void RAND_set_rand_method(const RAND_METHOD *meth);
168 \& const RAND_METHOD *RAND_get_rand_method(void);
169 \& RAND_METHOD *RAND_SSLeay(void);
171 \& void RAND_cleanup(void);
173 \& /* For Win32 only */
174 \& void RAND_screen(void);
175 \& int RAND_event(UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);
178 .IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
179 Since the introduction of the \s-1ENGINE API,\s0 the recommended way of controlling
180 default implementations is by using the \s-1ENGINE API\s0 functions. The default
181 \&\fB\s-1RAND_METHOD\s0\fR, as set by \fIRAND_set_rand_method()\fR and returned by
182 \&\fIRAND_get_rand_method()\fR, is only used if no \s-1ENGINE\s0 has been set as the default
183 \&\*(L"rand\*(R" implementation. Hence, these two functions are no longer the recommened
184 way to control defaults.
186 If an alternative \fB\s-1RAND_METHOD\s0\fR implementation is being used (either set
187 directly or as provided by an \s-1ENGINE\s0 module), then it is entirely responsible
188 for the generation and management of a cryptographically secure \s-1PRNG\s0 stream. The
189 mechanisms described below relate solely to the software \s-1PRNG\s0 implementation
190 built in to OpenSSL and used by default.
192 These functions implement a cryptographically secure pseudo-random
193 number generator (\s-1PRNG\s0). It is used by other library functions for
194 example to generate random keys, and applications can use it when they
197 A cryptographic \s-1PRNG\s0 must be seeded with unpredictable data such as
198 mouse movements or keys pressed at random by the user. This is
199 described in \fIRAND_add\fR\|(3). Its state can be saved in a seed file
200 (see \fIRAND_load_file\fR\|(3)) to avoid having to go through the
201 seeding process whenever the application is started.
203 \&\fIRAND_bytes\fR\|(3) describes how to obtain random data from the
206 .IX Header "INTERNALS"
207 The \fIRAND_SSLeay()\fR method implements a \s-1PRNG\s0 based on a cryptographic
210 The following description of its design is based on the SSLeay
213 First up I will state the things I believe I need for a good \s-1RNG.\s0
215 A good hashing algorithm to mix things up and to convert the \s-1RNG \s0'state'
218 An initial source of random 'state'.
220 The state should be very large. If the \s-1RNG\s0 is being used to generate
221 4096 bit \s-1RSA\s0 keys, 2 2048 bit random strings are required (at a minimum).
222 If your \s-1RNG\s0 state only has 128 bits, you are obviously limiting the
223 search space to 128 bits, not 2048. I'm probably getting a little
224 carried away on this last point but it does indicate that it may not be
225 a bad idea to keep quite a lot of \s-1RNG\s0 state. It should be easier to
226 break a cipher than guess the \s-1RNG\s0 seed data.
228 Any \s-1RNG\s0 seed data should influence all subsequent random numbers
229 generated. This implies that any random seed data entered will have
230 an influence on all subsequent random numbers generated.
232 When using data to seed the \s-1RNG\s0 state, the data used should not be
233 extractable from the \s-1RNG\s0 state. I believe this should be a
234 requirement because one possible source of 'secret' semi random
235 data would be a private key or a password. This data must
236 not be disclosed by either subsequent random numbers or a
237 \&'core' dump left by a program crash.
239 Given the same initial 'state', 2 systems should deviate in their \s-1RNG\s0 state
240 (and hence the random numbers generated) over time if at all possible.
242 Given the random number output stream, it should not be possible to determine
243 the \s-1RNG\s0 state or the next random number.
245 The algorithm is as follows.
247 There is global state made up of a 1023 byte buffer (the 'state'), a
248 working hash value ('md'), and a counter ('count').
250 Whenever seed data is added, it is inserted into the 'state' as
253 The input is chopped up into units of 20 bytes (or less for
254 the last block). Each of these blocks is run through the hash
255 function as follows: The data passed to the hash function
256 is the current 'md', the same number of bytes from the 'state'
257 (the location determined by in incremented looping index) as
258 the current 'block', the new key data 'block', and 'count'
259 (which is incremented after each use).
260 The result of this is kept in 'md' and also xored into the
261 \&'state' at the same locations that were used as input into the
263 believe this system addresses points 1 (hash function; currently
264 \&\s-1SHA\-1\s0), 3 (the 'state'), 4 (via the 'md'), 5 (by the use of a hash
267 When bytes are extracted from the \s-1RNG,\s0 the following process is used.
268 For each group of 10 bytes (or less), we do the following:
270 Input into the hash function the local 'md' (which is initialized from
271 the global 'md' before any bytes are generated), the bytes that are to
272 be overwritten by the random bytes, and bytes from the 'state'
273 (incrementing looping index). From this digest output (which is kept
274 in 'md'), the top (up to) 10 bytes are returned to the caller and the
275 bottom 10 bytes are xored into the 'state'.
277 Finally, after we have finished 'num' random bytes for the caller,
278 \&'count' (which is incremented) and the local and global 'md' are fed
279 into the hash function and the results are kept in the global 'md'.
281 I believe the above addressed points 1 (use of \s-1SHA\-1\s0), 6 (by hashing
282 into the 'state' the 'old' data from the caller that is about to be
283 overwritten) and 7 (by not using the 10 bytes given to the caller to
284 update the 'state', but they are used to update 'md').
286 So of the points raised, only 2 is not addressed (but see
287 \&\fIRAND_add\fR\|(3)).
289 .IX Header "SEE ALSO"
290 \&\fIBN_rand\fR\|(3), \fIRAND_add\fR\|(3),
291 \&\fIRAND_load_file\fR\|(3), \fIRAND_egd\fR\|(3),
292 \&\fIRAND_bytes\fR\|(3),
293 \&\fIRAND_set_rand_method\fR\|(3),
294 \&\fIRAND_cleanup\fR\|(3)