GNU bug report logs - #6683
mktemp foo.XXXXXXXXXXX is not sufficiently random

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From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> CS.UCLA.EDU>
Cc: 6683 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#6683: mktemp foo.XXXXXXXXXXX is not sufficiently random
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:41:29 -0600

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On 07/20/2010 11:21 AM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> While looking at the random-number stuff I found a theoretical
> randomness bug in mktemp.  The mktemp command currently uses 8 bytes
> of randomness to generate a file name, so with an invocation like
> this:
> 
> $ mktemp foo.XXXXXXXXXXX
> 
> the file name is not sufficiently random.  There are 62 possibilities
> for each X, so one needs log2(62**11) random bits to generate a random
> 11-character value for the Xs, which is about 65.5 bits, but we are
> generating only 64 bits.  The more Xs, the more randomness is needed,
> so the bug gets more "serious" as the number of Xs grows.

Meanwhile, glibc's mkstemp() only replaces the last 6 X, regardless of
how many additional X are present in the template.  Do we even need the
extra randomness if the template contains more X?

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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