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NAME

       random, urandom - kernel random number source devices

SYNOPSIS

       #include <linux/random.h>

       int ioctl(fd, RNDrequest, param);

DESCRIPTION

       The  character  special  files  /dev/random  and /dev/urandom (present since Linux 1.3.30)
       provide an interface to the kernel's random number generator.  The  file  /dev/random  has
       major  device  number 1 and minor device number 8.  The file /dev/urandom has major device
       number 1 and minor device number 9.

       The random number generator gathers environmental noise  from  device  drivers  and  other
       sources  into an entropy pool.  The generator also keeps an estimate of the number of bits
       of noise in the entropy pool.  From this entropy pool, random numbers are created.

       Linux 3.17 and later provides the simpler and safer getrandom(2) interface which  requires
       no special files; see the getrandom(2) manual page for details.

       When  read,  the  /dev/urandom  device  returns  random  bytes using a pseudorandom number
       generator seeded from the entropy pool.  Reads from this device do not  block  (i.e.,  the
       CPU  is  not yielded), but can incur an appreciable delay when requesting large amounts of
       data.

       When read during early boot time, /dev/urandom may return data prior to the  entropy  pool
       being  initialized.   If  this  is  of  concern  in  your application, use getrandom(2) or
       /dev/random instead.

       The /dev/random device is a legacy  interface  which  dates  back  to  a  time  where  the
       cryptographic  primitives  used  in  the  implementation  of  /dev/urandom were not widely
       trusted.  It will return random bytes only within the estimated number of  bits  of  fresh
       noise   in  the  entropy  pool,  blocking  if  necessary.   /dev/random  is  suitable  for
       applications that need high quality randomness, and can afford indeterminate delays.

       When the entropy pool is  empty,  reads  from  /dev/random  will  block  until  additional
       environmental noise is gathered.  If open(2) is called for /dev/random with the O_NONBLOCK
       flag, a subsequent read(2) will not  block  if  the  requested  number  of  bytes  is  not
       available.   Instead,  the available bytes are returned.  If no byte is available, read(2)
       will return -1 and errno will be set to EAGAIN.

       The O_NONBLOCK flag has no effect when opening /dev/urandom.  When calling read(2) for the
       device  /dev/urandom,  reads of up to 256 bytes will return as many bytes as are requested
       and will not be interrupted by a signal handler.  Reads with a buffer over this limit  may
       return  less  than  the  requested  number  of  bytes  or  fail  with  the error EINTR, if
       interrupted by a signal handler.

       Since Linux 3.16, a read(2) from /dev/urandom will return at most 32 MB.  A  read(2)  from
       /dev/random  will  return  at  most  512  bytes (340 bytes on Linux kernels before version
       2.6.12).

       Writing to /dev/random or /dev/urandom will update the entropy pool with the data written,
       but  this  will  not result in a higher entropy count.  This means that it will impact the
       contents read from both files, but it will not make reads from /dev/random faster.

   Usage
       The /dev/random interface is considered a legacy interface, and /dev/urandom is  preferred
       and  sufficient  in  all  use  cases,  with  the  exception  of applications which require
       randomness during early boot time; for  these  applications,  getrandom(2)  must  be  used
       instead, because it will block until the entropy pool is initialized.

       If a seed file is saved across reboots as recommended below (all major Linux distributions
       have done this since 2000 at  least),  the  output  is  cryptographically  secure  against
       attackers  without  local  root access as soon as it is reloaded in the boot sequence, and
       perfectly adequate for network encryption session keys.  Since reads from /dev/random  may
       block,  users  will  usually  want  to open it in nonblocking mode (or perform a read with
       timeout), and provide some sort of  user  notification  if  the  desired  entropy  is  not
       immediately available.

   Configuration
       If  your  system  does  not have /dev/random and /dev/urandom created already, they can be
       created with the following commands:

           mknod -m 666 /dev/random c 1 8
           mknod -m 666 /dev/urandom c 1 9
           chown root:root /dev/random /dev/urandom

       When a Linux system starts up without much operator interaction, the entropy pool  may  be
       in  a  fairly  predictable  state.  This reduces the actual amount of noise in the entropy
       pool below the estimate.  In order to counteract this effect, it helps  to  carry  entropy
       pool  information  across  shut-downs  and  start-ups.   To  do  this, add the lines to an
       appropriate script which is run during the Linux system start-up sequence:

           echo "Initializing random number generator..."
           random_seed=/var/run/random-seed
           # Carry a random seed from start-up to start-up
           # Load and then save the whole entropy pool
           if [ -f $random_seed ]; then
               cat $random_seed >/dev/urandom
           else
               touch $random_seed
           fi
           chmod 600 $random_seed
           poolfile=/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize
           [ -r $poolfile ] && bits=$(cat $poolfile) || bits=4096
           bytes=$(expr $bits / 8)
           dd if=/dev/urandom of=$random_seed count=1 bs=$bytes

       Also, add the following lines in an appropriate script  which  is  run  during  the  Linux
       system shutdown:

           # Carry a random seed from shut-down to start-up
           # Save the whole entropy pool
           echo "Saving random seed..."
           random_seed=/var/run/random-seed
           touch $random_seed
           chmod 600 $random_seed
           poolfile=/proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize
           [ -r $poolfile ] && bits=$(cat $poolfile) || bits=4096
           bytes=$(expr $bits / 8)
           dd if=/dev/urandom of=$random_seed count=1 bs=$bytes

       In    the    above    examples,    we    assume    Linux    2.6.0    or    later,    where
       /proc/sys/kernel/random/poolsize returns the size of the entropy pool in bits (see below).

   /proc interfaces
       The  files  in  the  directory  /proc/sys/kernel/random  (present  since  2.3.16)  provide
       additional information about the /dev/random device:

       entropy_avail
              This read-only file gives the available entropy, in bits.  This will be a number in
              the range 0 to 4096.

       poolsize
              This file gives the size of the entropy pool.  The  semantics  of  this  file  vary
              across kernel versions:

              Linux 2.4:
                     This  file gives the size of the entropy pool in bytes.  Normally, this file
                     will have the value 512, but it is writable, and can be changed to any value
                     for which an algorithm is available.  The choices are 32, 64, 128, 256, 512,
                     1024, or 2048.

              Linux 2.6 and later:
                     This file is read-only, and gives the size of the entropy pool in bits.   It
                     contains the value 4096.

       read_wakeup_threshold
              This  file  contains the number of bits of entropy required for waking up processes
              that sleep waiting for entropy from /dev/random.  The default is 64.

       write_wakeup_threshold
              This file contains the number of bits of entropy below which we wake  up  processes
              that  do  a select(2) or poll(2) for write access to /dev/random.  These values can
              be changed by writing to the files.

       uuid and boot_id
              These      read-only      files       contain       random       strings       like
              6fd5a44b-35f4-4ad4-a9b9-6b9be13e1fe9.   The  former  is  generated  afresh for each
              read, the latter was generated once.

   ioctl(2) interface
       The following ioctl(2) requests are  defined  on  file  descriptors  connected  to  either
       /dev/random  or /dev/urandom.  All requests performed will interact with the input entropy
       pool impacting  both  /dev/random  and  /dev/urandom.   The  CAP_SYS_ADMIN  capability  is
       required for all requests except RNDGETENTCNT.

       RNDGETENTCNT
              Retrieve  the entropy count of the input pool, the contents will be the same as the
              entropy_avail file under proc.  The result will be stored in the int pointed to  by
              the argument.

       RNDADDTOENTCNT
              Increment  or decrement the entropy count of the input pool by the value pointed to
              by the argument.

       RNDGETPOOL
              Removed in Linux 2.6.9.

       RNDADDENTROPY
              Add some additional entropy to the input  pool,  incrementing  the  entropy  count.
              This differs from writing to /dev/random or /dev/urandom, which only adds some data
              but does not increment the entropy count.  The following structure is used:

                  struct rand_pool_info {
                      int    entropy_count;
                      int    buf_size;
                      __u32  buf[0];
                  };

              Here entropy_count is the value added to (or subtracted from)  the  entropy  count,
              and buf is the buffer of size buf_size which gets added to the entropy pool.

       RNDZAPENTCNT, RNDCLEARPOOL
              Zero  the  entropy count of all pools and add some system data (such as wall clock)
              to the pools.

FILES

       /dev/random
       /dev/urandom

NOTES

       For an overview and comparison of the various  interfaces  that  can  be  used  to  obtain
       randomness, see random(7).

BUGS

       During  early boot time, reads from /dev/urandom may return data prior to the entropy pool
       being initialized.

SEE ALSO

       mknod(1), getrandom(2), random(7)

       RFC 1750, "Randomness Recommendations for Security"

COLOPHON

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