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authorcvs2svn <admin@example.com>2025-04-14 17:32:06 +0000
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1.\" $OpenBSD: arc4random.3,v 1.37 2019/09/29 16:30:35 jmc Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright 1997 Niels Provos <provos@physnet.uni-hamburg.de>
4.\" All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
8.\" are met:
9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
15.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
16.\" This product includes software developed by Niels Provos.
17.\" 4. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
18.\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
22.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
23.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
24.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
25.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
26.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
27.\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
28.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
29.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
30.\"
31.\" Manual page, using -mandoc macros
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: September 29 2019 $
34.Dt ARC4RANDOM 3
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm arc4random ,
38.Nm arc4random_buf ,
39.Nm arc4random_uniform
40.Nd random number generator
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In stdlib.h
43.Ft uint32_t
44.Fn arc4random "void"
45.Ft void
46.Fn arc4random_buf "void *buf" "size_t nbytes"
47.Ft uint32_t
48.Fn arc4random_uniform "uint32_t upper_bound"
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50This family of functions provides higher quality data than those
51described in
52.Xr rand 3 ,
53.Xr random 3 ,
54and
55.Xr rand48 3 .
56.Pp
57Use of these functions is encouraged for almost all random number
58consumption because the other interfaces are deficient in either
59quality, portability, standardization, or availability.
60These functions can be called in almost all coding environments,
61including
62.Xr pthreads 3
63and
64.Xr chroot 2 .
65.Pp
66High quality 32-bit pseudo-random numbers are generated very quickly.
67On each call, a cryptographic pseudo-random number generator is used
68to generate a new result.
69One data pool is used for all consumers in a process, so that consumption
70under program flow can act as additional stirring.
71The subsystem is re-seeded from the kernel
72.Xr random 4
73subsystem using
74.Xr getentropy 2
75on a regular basis, and also upon
76.Xr fork 2 .
77.Pp
78The
79.Fn arc4random
80function returns a single 32-bit value.
81.Pp
82.Fn arc4random_buf
83fills the region
84.Fa buf
85of length
86.Fa nbytes
87with random data.
88.Pp
89.Fn arc4random_uniform
90will return a single 32-bit value, uniformly distributed but less than
91.Fa upper_bound .
92This is recommended over constructions like
93.Dq Li arc4random() % upper_bound
94as it avoids "modulo bias" when the upper bound is not a power of two.
95In the worst case, this function may consume multiple iterations
96to ensure uniformity; see the source code to understand the problem
97and solution.
98.Sh RETURN VALUES
99These functions are always successful, and no return value is
100reserved to indicate an error.
101.Sh SEE ALSO
102.Xr rand 3 ,
103.Xr rand48 3 ,
104.Xr random 3
105.Sh HISTORY
106These functions first appeared in
107.Ox 2.1 .
108.Pp
109The original version of this random number generator used the
110RC4 (also known as ARC4) algorithm.
111In
112.Ox 5.5
113it was replaced with the ChaCha20 cipher, and it may be replaced
114again in the future as cryptographic techniques advance.
115A good mnemonic is
116.Dq A Replacement Call for Random .