[Python-Dev] BDFL ruling request: should we block forever waiting for high-quality random bits?

[David Mertz]

I believe that secrets.token_bytes() and secrets.SystemRandom() should be
changed even for 3.5.1 to use getrandom() on Linux.

Thanks for fixing my spelling of the secrets API, Donald. :-)

On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 12:17 PM, Donald Stufft <donald at stufft.io> wrote:

>
> On Jun 10, 2016, at 3:05 PM, David Mertz <mertz at gnosis.cx> wrote:
>
> OK.  My understanding is that Guido ruled out introducing an
> os.getrandom() API in 3.5.2.  But would you be happy if that interface is
> added to 3.6?
>
> It feels to me like the correct spelling in 3.6 should probably be
> secrets.getrandom() or something related to that.
>
>
>
> Well we have
> https://docs.python.org/dev/library/secrets.html#secrets.token_bytes so
> adding a getrandom() function to secrets would largely be the same as that
> function.
>
> The problem of course is that the secrets library in 3.6 uses os.urandom
> under the covers, so it’s security rests on the security of os.urandom. To
> ensure that the secrets library is actually safe even in early boot it’ll
> need to stop using os.urandom on Linux and use the getrandom() function.
>
> That same library exposes random.SystemRandom as secrets.SystemRandom [1],
> and of course SystemRandom uses os.urandom too. So if we want people to
> treat secrets.SystemRandom as “always secure” then it would need to stop
> using os.urandom and start using the get random() function on Linux as well.
>
>
> [1] This is actually documented as "using the highest-quality sources
> provided by the operating system” in the secrets documentation, and I’d
> argue that it is not using the highest-quality source if it’s reading from
> /dev/urandom or getrandom(GRD_NONBLOCK) on Linux systems where getrandom()
> is available. Of course, it’s just an alias for random.SystemRandom, and
> that is documented as using os.urandom.
>
> —
> Donald Stufft
>
>
>
>


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