BN_rand.pod revision 306195
1=pod 2 3=head1 NAME 4 5BN_rand, BN_pseudo_rand, BN_rand_range, BN_pseudo_rand_range - generate pseudo-random number 6 7=head1 SYNOPSIS 8 9 #include <openssl/bn.h> 10 11 int BN_rand(BIGNUM *rnd, int bits, int top, int bottom); 12 13 int BN_pseudo_rand(BIGNUM *rnd, int bits, int top, int bottom); 14 15 int BN_rand_range(BIGNUM *rnd, BIGNUM *range); 16 17 int BN_pseudo_rand_range(BIGNUM *rnd, BIGNUM *range); 18 19=head1 DESCRIPTION 20 21BN_rand() generates a cryptographically strong pseudo-random number of 22B<bits> in length and stores it in B<rnd>. 23If B<bits> is less than zero, or too small to 24accomodate the requirements specified by the B<top> and B<bottom> 25parameters, an error is returned. 26If B<top> is -1, the 27most significant bit of the random number can be zero. If B<top> is 0, 28it is set to 1, and if B<top> is 1, the two most significant bits of 29the number will be set to 1, so that the product of two such random 30numbers will always have 2*B<bits> length. If B<bottom> is true, the 31number will be odd. The value of B<bits> must be zero or greater. If B<bits> is 321 then B<top> cannot also be 1. 33 34BN_pseudo_rand() does the same, but pseudo-random numbers generated by 35this function are not necessarily unpredictable. They can be used for 36non-cryptographic purposes and for certain purposes in cryptographic 37protocols, but usually not for key generation etc. 38 39BN_rand_range() generates a cryptographically strong pseudo-random 40number B<rnd> in the range 0 E<lt>= B<rnd> E<lt> B<range>. 41BN_pseudo_rand_range() does the same, but is based on BN_pseudo_rand(), 42and hence numbers generated by it are not necessarily unpredictable. 43 44The PRNG must be seeded prior to calling BN_rand() or BN_rand_range(). 45 46=head1 RETURN VALUES 47 48The functions return 1 on success, 0 on error. 49The error codes can be obtained by L<ERR_get_error(3)|ERR_get_error(3)>. 50 51=head1 SEE ALSO 52 53L<bn(3)|bn(3)>, L<ERR_get_error(3)|ERR_get_error(3)>, L<rand(3)|rand(3)>, 54L<RAND_add(3)|RAND_add(3)>, L<RAND_bytes(3)|RAND_bytes(3)> 55 56=head1 HISTORY 57 58BN_rand() is available in all versions of SSLeay and OpenSSL. 59BN_pseudo_rand() was added in OpenSSL 0.9.5. The B<top> == -1 case 60and the function BN_rand_range() were added in OpenSSL 0.9.6a. 61BN_pseudo_rand_range() was added in OpenSSL 0.9.6c. 62 63=cut 64