Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 22:08:10 -0800 From: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> To: Tim Robbins <tjr@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org>, "Andrey A. Chernov" <ache@FreeBSD.ORG>, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/lib/libc/stdlib rand.c Message-ID: <20030217060810.GA68835@rot13.obsecurity.org> In-Reply-To: <20030217164048.A28273@dilbert.robbins.dropbear.id.au> References: <200302170352.h1H3qawJ062671@repoman.freebsd.org> <20030217045729.GA68471@rot13.obsecurity.org> <20030217164048.A28273@dilbert.robbins.dropbear.id.au>
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--qDbXVdCdHGoSgWSk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On Mon, Feb 17, 2003 at 04:40:48PM +1100, Tim Robbins wrote: > I disagree. It's safe to use rand() in games and in certain kinds of > simulations when you don't care that the distribution isn't quite > uniform, or when you prefer speed over quality. I don't think rand() > needs a warning message like gets() &c. because it's not as dangerous. The problem is that there are a number of applications that use it when they should not. I've given examples of two of them, and there are probably lots of others I haven't noticed. For example, I just checked, and libICE appears to use rand() for cookie generation. This is completely bogus, and insecure. Note that I was only suggesting this patch be committed to -current for purposes of finding out what these applications are, and fixing them as appropriate. > I'd much prefer that rand() generated higher quality numbers, though. Me too, but that is apparently not possible because of API constraints. Kris --qDbXVdCdHGoSgWSk Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE+UHxJWry0BWjoQKURApOPAJ91hmT/jit1cAd9XdgHmo27GPSSYQCfaNBb zlD2ddx+nMeLjX801e59L7s= =kJ08 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --qDbXVdCdHGoSgWSk-- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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