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Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2015 23:59:24 -0600
Message-ID: <CALYT1Yp_szH_M=4ufwVXAng9iuva8rahqazjjZX+Br717k0urg@mail.gmail.com>
To: Pierre Joye <pierre.php@gmail.com>
Cc: Leigh <leight@gmail.com>, Tom Worster <fsb@thefsb.org>, 
	php-internals <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=047d7bb7092c399774050ff774f3
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] [DISCUSSION] Reliable user-land CSPRNG
From: me@sammyk.me (Sammy Kaye Powers)

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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I don't know why everyone says the internals list is so scary - you guys
are great! :)

> I think the function name(s) should indicate that these functions are for
getting crypto-secure randomness. I proposed cs_random_bytes()

I'm cool with that idea but I also think it should be spelled out like `
random_crypto_*()` as Pierre suggests. I like `secure_random_bytes()` but
that's because it's what Ruby names their CSPRNG. :)
http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.1.2/libdoc/securerandom/rdoc/SecureRandom.html
But really a moot point.

> CS random strings are often required but I haven't ever seen requirements
for arbitrary alphabets, charsets and encodings. In Yii we provided a
method that returns a string using the 64-character set [a-zA-Z0-9_-] which
is nice because they are all transparent in URLs. There are many uses for
such strings and it seems to meet the needs of most users, as they haven't
requested more flexibility.

I actually started down this RFC path out of frustration on this very point
of needing secure random alphanumeric stings. The originally RFC & patch
contained a `random_hex()` function that would convert bytes from the
CSPRNG into hex. The use case that I have seen most needed in user-land is
in fact for random alphanumeric strings so that they can generate CSRF
tokens. Every CRUD app could be affected by this. So I'm still +1 for
having a built-in function to get back arbitrary alphanumeric strings. But
this can be done with `bin2hex(random_bytes(16))` or `base64_encode(
random_bytes(16))` so I won't fight it too much. :)

> I welcome the proposal for an easy-to-use PHP function for obtaining crypto-secure
randomness.

> I love this addition and it is cruelly needed :)

Yay! Lots of love for a CSPRNG! :)


Thanks,
Sammy Kaye Powers
sammyk.me

230 S Clark St #194
Chicago, IL 60604

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