https://nalar.dev/tags/openssl/ Recent content in OpenSSL on Nalar Hugo en-us Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nalar.dev/generating-cryptographic-random-values-on-linux/ Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://nalar.dev/generating-cryptographic-random-values-on-linux/ <p>A command such as <code>openssl rand -hex 32</code> is often described as generating a &ldquo;random hash.&rdquo; The output certainly looks like a SHA-256 digest: 64 hexadecimal characters. But no hash operation has happened. OpenSSL generated 32 random bytes and encoded them as hexadecimal.</p> <p>That distinction matters. A hash function transforms input into a fixed-size digest. A cryptographically secure random number generator produces unpredictable bytes. If the requirement is a token, session secret, API credential, nonce, or other fresh random value, the random bytes are the important part. Hashing them afterward usually adds no useful unpredictability.</p>