crypto:rand_bytes using deprecated function
David Whitlock <[email protected]> Thu, 8 Oct 2015 09:42:25 +0700
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.lang.erlang.general,gmane.comp.lang.erlang.bugs |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <CAEwXPVNVXaN-dGdRkore3x0hQF=at_ADRMCSEHR6JWYudGgdww@mail.gmail.com> |
Hi, The rand_bytes function in the crypto module is using the openssl RAND_pseudo_bytes function, which is deprecated. This raises three issues / questions: 1. Should he function rand_bytes be deprecated? 2. Should the documentation state that it should not be used for cryptographic purposes (this is the openssl recommendation)? 3. In otp/lib/ssl/src/ssl.erl (starting line 595) and in otp/lib/crypto/src/crypto.erl (starting line 643) there are functions which fall back to rand_bytes if strong_rand_bytes cannot be used. It is therefore possible that rand_bytes might be used to generate keys. Should these functions return an error instead? If you need any more info, please let me know, David Whitlock