UberFace
UberFace

Reputation: 485

How many digits of randomness does GUID provide?

I know GUID is not random and that should not be used for security purposes, but how many random digits does it provide ? (To which extent can it be used as source of entropy for any task that does not require security)

Of 32 digits in example, maybe 4/5 are random?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 178

Answers (1)

Peter O.
Peter O.

Reputation: 32908

A version 4 UUID (also known as GUID) contains 122 randomly chosen bits; the other 6 bits are fixed. (There are other versions of UUIDs; see RFC 4122.) UUIDs are intended as identifiers, not as a source of randomness.

Upvotes: 2

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