CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonpasswordsentropypasslib
gratz
gratz

Reputation: 1616

How to ensure RNG entropy pool is "secure and full" for generating passwords with passlib?

When looking at using Python's passlib module, the documentation[1] comes with a warning for generating passwords which reads..

Warning: Before using these routines, make sure your system’s RNG entropy pool is secure and full. Also make sure that genword() or genphrase() is called with a sufficiently high entropy parameter the intended purpose of the password.

However it makes no mention of how this is achieved. In practice my understanding is that the entropy pool would fill gradually, usually through keyboard/mouse input but how is this achieved for a headless server for example, and how do you ensure it is secure/full before you call the genword/genphrase functions?

[1] https://passlib.readthedocs.io/en/stable/lib/passlib.pwd.html

Upvotes: 1

Views: 234

Answers (1)

Ideaphore
Ideaphore

Reputation: 26

On Linux: cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail

$ cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail

3590

The upper limit is 4096, anything close to this is OK

Below 200 is not good.

See: https://blog.cloudflare.com/ensuring-randomness-with-linuxs-random-number-generator/

Upvotes: 1

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