33 lines
1.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
33 lines
1.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
Random number generation
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========================
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When generating random data for use in cryptographic operations, such as an
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initialization vector for encryption in
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:class:`~cryptography.hazmat.primitives.ciphers.modes.CBC` mode, you do not
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want to use the standard :mod:`random` module APIs. This is because they do not
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provide a cryptographically secure random number generator, which can result in
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major security issues depending on the algorithms in use.
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Therefore, it is our recommendation to `always use your operating system's
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provided random number generator`_, which is available as :func:`os.urandom`.
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For example, if you need 16 bytes of random data for an initialization vector,
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you can obtain them with:
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.. doctest::
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>>> import os
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>>> iv = os.urandom(16)
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This will use ``/dev/urandom`` on UNIX platforms, and ``CryptGenRandom`` on
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Windows.
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If you need your random number as an integer (for example, for
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:meth:`~cryptography.x509.CertificateBuilder.serial_number`), you can use
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``int.from_bytes`` to convert the result of ``os.urandom``:
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.. code-block:: pycon
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>>> serial = int.from_bytes(os.urandom(20), byteorder="big")
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.. _`always use your operating system's provided random number generator`: https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2014/02/25/safely-generate-random-numbers/
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