xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/random.9 (revision f50322c1dcfe369ad73e1123541d18fc431384f6)

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.\"	Mark R V Murray
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.Dd March 18, 2024
.Dt RANDOM 9
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm arc4rand ,
.Nm arc4random ,
.Nm arc4random_buf ,
.Nm is_random_seeded ,
.Nm random ,
.Nm read_random ,
.Nm read_random_uio
.Nd supply pseudo-random numbers
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/libkern.h
.Ft uint32_t
.Fn arc4random "void"
.Ft void
.Fn arc4random_buf "void *ptr" "size_t len"
.Ft void
.Fn arc4rand "void *ptr" "u_int length" "int reseed"
.Pp
.In sys/random.h
.Ft bool
.Fn is_random_seeded "void"
.Ft void
.Fn read_random "void *buffer" "int count"
.Ft int
.Fn read_random_uio "struct uio *uio" "bool nonblock"
.Ss LEGACY ROUTINES
.In sys/libkern.h
.Ft u_long
.Fn random "void"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn arc4random
and
.Fn arc4random_buf
functions will return very good quality random numbers, suited for
security-related purposes.
Both are wrappers around the underlying
.Fn arc4rand
interface.
.Fn arc4random
returns a 32-bit random value, while
.Fn arc4random_buf
fills
.Fa ptr
with
.Fa len
bytes of random data.
.Pp
The
.Fn arc4rand
CSPRNG
is seeded from the
.Xr random 4
kernel abstract entropy device.
Automatic reseeding happens at unspecified time and bytes (of output)
intervals.
A reseed can be forced by passing a non-zero
.Fa reseed
value.
.Pp
The
.Fn read_random
function is used to read entropy directly from the kernel abstract entropy
device.
.Fn read_random
blocks if and until the entropy device is seeded.
The provided
.Fa buffer
is filled with no more than
.Fa count
bytes.
It is strongly advised that
.Fn read_random
is not used directly;
instead, use the
.Fn arc4rand
family of functions.
.Pp
The
.Fn is_random_seeded
function can be used to check in advance if
.Fn read_random
will block.
(If random is seeded, it will not block.)
.Pp
The
.Fn read_random_uio
function behaves identically to
.Xr read 2
on
.Pa /dev/random .
The
.Fa uio
argument points to a buffer where random data should be stored.
If
.Fa nonblock
is true and the random device is not seeded, this function does not return any
data.
Otherwise, this function may block interruptibly until the random device is seeded.
If the function is interrupted before the random device is seeded, no data is
returned.
.Pp
The deprecated
.Fn random
function will return a 31-bit value.
It is obsolete and scheduled to be removed in
.Fx 15.0 .
Consider
.Xr prng 9
instead and see
.Sx SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS .
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn arc4rand
function uses the Chacha20 algorithm to generate a pseudo-random sequence of
bytes.
The
.Fn arc4random
function uses
.Fn arc4rand
to generate pseudo-random numbers
in the range from 0 to
.if t 2\u\s732\s10\d\(mi1.
.if n (2**32)\(mi1.
.Pp
The
.Fn read_random
function returns
the number of bytes placed in
.Fa buffer .
.Pp
.Fn read_random_uio
returns zero when successful,
otherwise an error code is returned.
.Pp
.Fn random
returns numbers
in the range from 0 to
.if t 2\u\s731\s10\d\(mi1.
.if n (2**31)\(mi1.

.Sh ERRORS
.Fn read_random_uio
may fail if:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er EFAULT
.Fa uio
points to an invalid memory region.
.It Bq Er EWOULDBLOCK
The random device is unseeded and
.Fa nonblock
is true.
.El
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Dan Moschuk
wrote
.Fn arc4random .
.An Mark R V Murray
wrote
.Fn read_random .
.Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
Do not use
.Fn random
in new code.
.Pp
It is important to remember that the
.Fn random
function is entirely predictable.
It is easy for attackers to predict future output of
.Fn random
by recording some generated values.
We cannot emphasize strongly enough that
.Fn random
must not be used to generate values that are intended to be unpredictable.