RAND.7ossl 7.5 KB

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  135. .IX Title "RAND 7ossl"
  136. .TH RAND 7ossl "2024-09-03" "3.3.2" "OpenSSL"
  137. .\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
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  139. .if n .ad l
  140. .nh
  141. .SH "NAME"
  142. RAND
  143. \&\- the OpenSSL random generator
  144. .SH "DESCRIPTION"
  145. .IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
  146. Random numbers are a vital part of cryptography, they are needed to provide
  147. unpredictability for tasks like key generation, creating salts, and many more.
  148. Software-based generators must be seeded with external randomness before they
  149. can be used as a cryptographically-secure pseudo-random number generator
  150. (\s-1CSPRNG\s0).
  151. The availability of common hardware with special instructions and
  152. modern operating systems, which may use items such as interrupt jitter
  153. and network packet timings, can be reasonable sources of seeding material.
  154. .PP
  155. OpenSSL comes with a default implementation of the \s-1RAND API\s0 which is based on
  156. the deterministic random bit generator (\s-1DRBG\s0) model as described in
  157. [\s-1NIST SP 800\-90A\s0 Rev. 1]. The default random generator will initialize
  158. automatically on first use and will be fully functional without having
  159. to be initialized ('seeded') explicitly.
  160. It seeds and reseeds itself automatically using trusted random sources
  161. provided by the operating system.
  162. .PP
  163. As a normal application developer, you do not have to worry about any details,
  164. just use \fBRAND_bytes\fR\|(3) to obtain random data.
  165. Having said that, there is one important rule to obey: Always check the error
  166. return value of \fBRAND_bytes\fR\|(3) and do not take randomness for granted.
  167. Although (re\-)seeding is automatic, it can fail because no trusted random source
  168. is available or the trusted source(s) temporarily fail to provide sufficient
  169. random seed material.
  170. In this case the \s-1CSPRNG\s0 enters an error state and ceases to provide output,
  171. until it is able to recover from the error by reseeding itself.
  172. For more details on reseeding and error recovery, see \s-1\fBEVP_RAND\s0\fR\|(7).
  173. .PP
  174. For values that should remain secret, you can use \fBRAND_priv_bytes\fR\|(3)
  175. instead.
  176. This method does not provide 'better' randomness, it uses the same type of
  177. \&\s-1CSPRNG.\s0
  178. The intention behind using a dedicated \s-1CSPRNG\s0 exclusively for private
  179. values is that none of its output should be visible to an attacker (e.g.,
  180. used as salt value), in order to reveal as little information as
  181. possible about its internal state, and that a compromise of the \*(L"public\*(R"
  182. \&\s-1CSPRNG\s0 instance will not affect the secrecy of these private values.
  183. .PP
  184. In the rare case where the default implementation does not satisfy your special
  185. requirements, the default \s-1RAND\s0 internals can be replaced by your own
  186. \&\s-1\fBEVP_RAND\s0\fR\|(3) objects.
  187. .PP
  188. Changing the default random generator should be necessary
  189. only in exceptional cases and is not recommended, unless you have a profound
  190. knowledge of cryptographic principles and understand the implications of your
  191. changes.
  192. .SH "DEFAULT SETUP"
  193. .IX Header "DEFAULT SETUP"
  194. The default OpenSSL \s-1RAND\s0 method is based on the \s-1EVP_RAND\s0 deterministic random
  195. bit generator (\s-1DRBG\s0) classes.
  196. A \s-1DRBG\s0 is a certain type of cryptographically-secure pseudo-random
  197. number generator (\s-1CSPRNG\s0), which is described in [\s-1NIST SP 800\-90A\s0 Rev. 1].
  198. .SH "SEE ALSO"
  199. .IX Header "SEE ALSO"
  200. \&\fBRAND_bytes\fR\|(3),
  201. \&\fBRAND_priv_bytes\fR\|(3),
  202. \&\s-1\fBEVP_RAND\s0\fR\|(3),
  203. \&\fBRAND_get0_primary\fR\|(3),
  204. \&\s-1\fBEVP_RAND\s0\fR\|(7)
  205. .SH "COPYRIGHT"
  206. .IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
  207. Copyright 2018\-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
  208. .PP
  209. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the \*(L"License\*(R"). You may not use
  210. this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy
  211. in the file \s-1LICENSE\s0 in the source distribution or at
  212. <https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.