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Diffstat (limited to 'rand/src/prng/mod.rs')
-rw-r--r-- | rand/src/prng/mod.rs | 51 |
1 files changed, 51 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/rand/src/prng/mod.rs b/rand/src/prng/mod.rs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed3e018 --- /dev/null +++ b/rand/src/prng/mod.rs @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +// Copyright 2017 The Rust Project Developers. See the COPYRIGHT +// file at the top-level directory of this distribution and at +// http://rust-lang.org/COPYRIGHT. +// +// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 <LICENSE-APACHE or +// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0> or the MIT license +// <LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>, at your +// option. This file may not be copied, modified, or distributed +// except according to those terms. + +//! Pseudo random number generators are algorithms to produce *apparently +//! random* numbers deterministically, and usually fairly quickly. +//! +//! So long as the algorithm is computationally secure, is initialised with +//! sufficient entropy (i.e. unknown by an attacker), and its internal state is +//! also protected (unknown to an attacker), the output will also be +//! *computationally secure*. Computationally Secure Pseudo Random Number +//! Generators (CSPRNGs) are thus suitable sources of random numbers for +//! cryptography. There are a couple of gotchas here, however. First, the seed +//! used for initialisation must be unknown. Usually this should be provided by +//! the operating system and should usually be secure, however this may not +//! always be the case (especially soon after startup). Second, user-space +//! memory may be vulnerable, for example when written to swap space, and after +//! forking a child process should reinitialise any user-space PRNGs. For this +//! reason it may be preferable to source random numbers directly from the OS +//! for cryptographic applications. +//! +//! PRNGs are also widely used for non-cryptographic uses: randomised +//! algorithms, simulations, games. In these applications it is usually not +//! important for numbers to be cryptographically *unguessable*, but even +//! distribution and independence from other samples (from the point of view +//! of someone unaware of the algorithm used, at least) may still be important. +//! Good PRNGs should satisfy these properties, but do not take them for +//! granted; Wikipedia's article on +//! [Pseudorandom number generators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudorandom_number_generator) +//! provides some background on this topic. +//! +//! Care should be taken when seeding (initialising) PRNGs. Some PRNGs have +//! short periods for some seeds. If one PRNG is seeded from another using the +//! same algorithm, it is possible that both will yield the same sequence of +//! values (with some lag). + +mod chacha; +mod isaac; +mod isaac64; +mod xorshift; + +pub use self::chacha::ChaChaRng; +pub use self::isaac::IsaacRng; +pub use self::isaac64::Isaac64Rng; +pub use self::xorshift::XorShiftRng; |