Tracking Issue for secure random data generation in `std`

[joboet]

Feature gate: #![feature(random)]

This is a tracking issue for secure random data generation support in std.

Central to this feature is the RandomSource trait inside core::random, which generates random bytes. std also exposes the platform's secure random number generator via the DefaultRandomSource type. There is a Distribution<T> trait for distributions that can sample random values of a specific type, and a random function for convenience to allow things like random(1..=6).

Public API

// core::random

pub trait RandomSource {
    fn fill_bytes(&mut self, bytes: &mut [u8]);
}

pub trait Distribution<T> {
    fn sample(&self, source: &mut (impl RandomSource + ?Sized)) -> T;
}

impl Distribution<bool> for RangeFull { ... }
impl Distribution</* all integer types */> for /* all range types */ { ... }

// std::random (additionally)

pub struct DefaultRandomSource;

impl RandomSource for DefaultRandomSource { ... }

pub fn random<T>(dist: &(impl Distribution<T> + ?Sized)) -> T;

Steps / History

• ACP: Simple secure random number generation libs-team#393
• Implementation
  • std: implement the random feature (alternative version) #129201
  • API rework for Distribution<T> and new random
• Final comment period (FCP)¹
• Stabilization PR

Unresolved Questions

• Naming: the ACP used gen_bytes and DefaultRng, the implementation PR uses fill_bytes and DefaultRandomSource (see arguments pro gen_bytes and pro fill_bytes)
• Concerns listed at Simple secure random number generation libs-team#393 (comment) should be addressed

Footnotes

1. https://std-dev-guide.rust-lang.org/feature-lifecycle/stabilization.html ↩

[newpavlov]

Disclaimer: I am one of the getrandom developers.

I think it's important for RandomSource methods to properly return potential errors. Getting randomness is an IO operation and it may fail. In some context it's important to process such errors instead of panicking. The error may be either io::Error or something like getrandom::Error (i.e. a thin wrapper around NonZeroU32).

It may be worth to add the following methods to RandomSource:

• fill_bytes which works with uninitialized buffers, e.g. based on BorrowedBuf. Yes, zeroization of buffers is usually a very small cost compared to a syscall, but it still goes against the zero-cost spirit.
• Generation of u32 and u64. Some platforms support direct generation of such values (e.g. RDRAND, WASI, etc.). Going through fill_bytes will be a bit less efficient in such cases.
• Methods for potentially "insecure" generation of random values, but which are less prone to blocking. The HashMap seeding is the most obvious use-case for this.

It's also not clear whether it's allowed to overwrite the default RandomSource supplied with std similarly to GlobalAlloc.

[joboet]

Would you consider rust-lang/libs-team#159 to be a better solution? That one used the Read trait to fulfil everything you mention.

[newpavlov]

No, I don't think it's an appropriate solution. Firstly, it relies on io::Error, while IIUC you intend for this API to be available in core. Secondly, it does not provide methods for generation of u32 and u64. As I wrote, going through the byte interface is not always efficient. Finally, most of io::Read methods are not relevant here.

For the last point I guess we could define a separate DefaultInsecureRandomSource type.

[bstrie]

Firstly, it relies on io::Error, while IIUC you intend for this API to be available in core.

I don't think this needs to be a blocker. IMO a lot of std::io should be moved into core--not the OS-specific implementations obviously, but all the cross-platform things like type definitions, same as what happened with core::net.

[wwylele]

fn random(source: &mut (impl RandomSource + ?Sized)) -> Self;

Would it be better to make this explicit with generics? Like fn random<R: RandomSource + ?Sized>(source: &mut R) -> Self;. This gives user the ability to specify the type name when needed.

[ericlagergren]

I think it's important for RandomSource methods to properly return potential errors.

I (mostly) disagree. CSPRNGs should almost never fail. When they do, users are almost never qualified to diagnose the problem.

For example: golang/go#66821

A compromise is something like this:

trait RandomSource {
    type Error;
    fn fill_bytes(...) {
        self.try_fill_bytes(...).unwrap();
    }
    fn try_fill_bytes(...) -> Result<..., Self::Error>
}

This allows most CSPRNGs to use Error = Infallible, but still has support for weird HSMs, etc.

[newpavlov]

@ericlagergren
I've assumed this trait is for a "system" RNG, which will work together with a #[global_allocator]-like way to register implementation. I don't think that we need a general RNG trait in std/core as I wrote in this comment.

As for design of fallible RNG traits, see the new rand_core crate.

[dhardy]

pub trait Random {
    fn random(source: &mut (impl RandomSource + ?Sized)) -> Self;
}

This trait (and the topic of random value generation) should be removed from this discussion entirely in my opinion, focussing only on "secure random data generation" as in the title. Why: because (1) provision of secure random data is an important topic by itself (with many users only wanting a byte slice and with methods like from_ne_bytes already providing safe conversion) and (2) because random value generation is a whole other topic (including uniform-ranged samples and much more).

Disclaimer: I am one of the rand developers. rand originally had a similar trait which got removed; the closest surviving equivalent is StandardUniform.

[hanna-kruppe]

@newpavlov

It's also not clear whether it's allowed to overwrite the default RandomSource supplied with std similarly to GlobalAlloc.

Overriding the default source in an application that already has one from linking std seems questionable. It's not that I can't imagine any use case for it, but the established pattern for such overrides allows any crate in the dependency graph to do it (it's only an error if you link two such crates), instead of putting the leaf binary/cdylib/staticlib artifact in charge. As you articulated in the context of getrandom, that's a security risk for applications. So a RandomSource equivalent should probably be more restrictive in who can override it, but that's not the existing pattern. It also doesn't seem to fit with the proposed generalization of that pattern via "externally implementable functions" (rust-lang/rfcs#3632) -- if that RFC is accepted, any new API surface should use it instead of adding new one-off mechanisms.

If overriding the std source isn't supported, then it could work the same way as #[panic_handler]: you must supply an implementation if you don't link std, but if you do link std then supplying your own is an error. This would still be extremely useful. Currently, every crate that's (optionally) no_std and needs some randomness, most commonly for seeding Hashers, has to cobble together some sub-par ad-hoc solution to try and get some entropy from somewhere. There's a bunch of partial solutions that are better than nothing (const-random, taking addresses of global/local variables and praying that there's some ASLR, a global counter when atomics are available, cfg-gated access to target-specific sources like CPU cycle counters or x86 RDRAND) but:

1. How well this works ends up highly platform-specific, in particular none of them work well for wasm32-unknown-unknown and wasm32v1-none targets .
2. Applications that have access to a better source of entropy and (directly or transitively) use such libraries don't have a good way to enumerate them and make all of them use the better source.

This wouldn't be a problem if the entire ecosystem could agree to always delegate this problem to on one specific crate (version) with appropriate hooks, like getrandom, but evidently that's not happening. Putting this capability into core (or a new no_std sysroot crate, comparable to alloc) has a better chance of solving this coordination problem. Well, at least eventually, once everyone's MSRV has caught up.

Edit: almost forgot that even std::collections::Hash{Map,Set} depend on having a source of random seeds. A way to supply such a source without linking std could help with moving those types to alloc, although as #27242 (comment) points out, it's not backwards compatible to make such a source mandatory for no_std + alloc applications.

[newpavlov]

@hanna-kruppe

Overriding the default source in an application that already has one from linking std seems questionable.

There is a number of reasons to allow overriding:

1. An alternative interface may be more efficient than the default one (e.g. reading the RNDR register vs doing syscall)
2. It may help reduce binary size and eliminate potentially problematic fallback paths (e.g. if you know that you do not need the file fallback on Linux)
3. In some cases it's useful to eliminate non-deterministic inputs (testing, fuzzing)

So a RandomSource equivalent should probably be more restrictive in who can override it, but that's not the existing pattern.

Yes. How about following the getrandom path and allow override only when a special configuration flag is passed to the compiler?

Either way, overriding is probably can be left for later. I think we both agree that we need a way to expose "system" entropy source in std and a way to define this source for std-less targets.

It also doesn't seem to fit with the proposed generalization of that pattern via "externally implementable functions" -- if that RFC is accepted, any new API surface should use it instead of adding new one-off mechanisms.

I agree that ideally we need a unified approach for this kind of problem. I made a similar proposal once upon a time.

But I think it fits fine? Targets with std could implicitly use std_random_impl crate for "external implementation" of the getrandom-like functions and users will be able to override it in application crates if necessary.

How well this works ends up highly platform-specific, in particular none of them work well for wasm32-unknown-unknown and wasm32v1-none targets .

I believe that having std for wasm32-unknown-unknown was a big mistake in the first place and the wasm32v1-none target is a good step in the direction of amending it. So I hope we will not give too much attention to its special circumstances.

This wouldn't be a problem if the entire ecosystem could agree to always delegate this problem to on one specific crate (version) with appropriate hooks, like getrandom, but evidently that's not happening.

Well, it has happened, sort of. getrandom is reasonably popular in the ecosystem even after excluding rand users.

The problem is that std already effectively includes its variant of getrandom for HashMap seeding and people reasonably want to get access to that. And I think problem of getting "system" entropy is fundamental enough for having it in std (well, not in the std per se, let's say in the sysroot crate set).

A way to supply such a source without linking std could help with moving those types to alloc, although as #27242 (comment) points out, it's not backwards compatible to make such a source mandatory for no_std + alloc applications.

Can we add yet another sysroot crate for HashMap which will depend on both alloc and the hypothetical "system entropy" crate?

[hanna-kruppe]

But I think it fits fine? Targets with std could implicitly use std_random_impl crate for "external implementation" of the getrandom-like functions and users will be able to override it in application crates if necessary.

The RFC (and the competing ones I've looked at) only supports a default implementation in the crate that "declares" the externally-implementable thing. If that crate isn't std, then an implementation from std would not count as "default" but conflict with any other definition. So we'd need another special carve-out for std (the very thing we'd want to avoid by adding a general language feature), or the language feature needs to become much more general to support overrideable default implementations from another source.

I believe that having std for wasm32-unknown-unknown was a big mistake in the first place and the wasm32v1-none target is a good step in the direction of amending it. So I hope we will not give too much attention to its special circumstances.

I was specifically talking about no_std libraries, for which the two targets are basically equivalent. Both don't have any source of entropy implied by the target tuple (instruction set, OS, env, etc.), and if you want to add one it'll have to involve whatever application-specific interface the wasm module has with its host.

Well, it has happened, sort of. getrandom is reasonably popular in the ecosystem even after excluding rand users.

Not to point any fingers but a counter example that's fresh on my mind because I looked at its code recently is foldhash. As another example, ahash only uses getrandom optionally (though it's on by default). If you're only using ahash indirectly through another library that disables the feature, then it's not gonna use getrandom unless you happen to notice this and add a direct dependency to enable the feature. In that case there is a solution, at least, but it's still not discoverable.

Can we add yet another sysroot crate for HashMap which will depend on both alloc and the hypothetical "system entropy" crate?

Possibly, but people may object to a proliferation of sysroot crates so let's hope there's a better solution.