Message 267828 - Python tracker (original) (raw)

Is there a way to read from /dev/urandom without blocking? If not, _PyOS_URandom() may use arc4random() on FreeBSD if block is false. I suggest to enhance _PyOS_URandom() after the Python 3.5.2 release.

See the issue #22542 "Use arc4random under OpenBSD for os.urandom() if /dev/urandom is not present".

It looks like arc4random() is now initialized with getentropy(KEYSZ+IVSZ) (32+8 = 40 bytes) on OpenBSD: http://bxr.su/OpenBSD/lib/libc/crypt/arc4random.c

getentropy() is non-blocking. By the way, os.urandom() is now implemented with getentropy() on OpenBSD.