Issue #4579 has been updated by Akira Tanaka.


NaHi:
> We should avoid using
> /dev/urandom every time on the env w/o OpenSSL in the future.

I'd like to say "Please install OpenSSL" for such request.

Cryptographic algorithms should be implemented/maintained by cryptographic experts but I am not a cryptographic expert.

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Bug #4579: SecureRandom + OpenSSL may repeat with fork
http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/4579

Author: Eric Wong
Status: Closed
Priority: Normal
Assignee: Akira Tanaka
Category: lib
Target version: 1.9.x
ruby -v: -


=begin
This could arguably be a bug in OpenSSL or the openssl extension, but
I think it's easier to fix in Ruby right now.

The PRNG in OpenSSL uses the PID to seed the PRNG.  Since PIDs get
recycled over time on Unix systems, this means independent processes
over a long time span will repeat random byte sequences.  This has
security implications, but fortunately very little software forks
very frequently.  I am not a security expert.

I am using OpenSSL 0.9.8g-15+lenny11 (Debian Lenny)

Attached is a script that reproduces the issue (takes a while to run).
It'll output two identical lines to illustrate the issue.

=end



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