ssh-rand-helper(8)

NAME

       ssh-rand-helper - Random number gatherer for OpenSSH

SYNOPSIS

       ssh-rand-hlper [-vxXh] [-b bytes]

DESCRIPTION

       ssh-rand-helper  is  a small helper program used by ssh(1), ssh-add(1),
       ssh-agent(1), ssh-keygen(1), ssh-keyscan(1) and sshd(8) to gather  ran-
       dom  numbers of cryptographic quality if the openssl(4) library has not
       been configured to provide them itself.

       Normally ssh-rand-helper will generate a strong random seed and provide
       it  to the calling program via standard output. If standard output is a
       tty, ssh-rand-helper will instead print the seed in hexidecimal  format
       unless told otherwise.

       ssh-rand-helper  will  by default gather random numbers from the system
       commands listed in /etc/ssh/ssh_prng_cmds.  The output of each  of  the
       commands  listed  will be hashed and used to generate a random seed for
       the calling program.  ssh-rand-helper will also  store  seed  files  in
       ~/.ssh/prng_seed between executions.

       Alternately, ssh-rand-helper may be configured at build time to collect
       random numbers from a EGD/PRNGd server via a unix domain  or  localhost
       tcp socket.

       This program is not intended to be run by the end-user, so the few com-
       mandline options are for debugging purposes only.

       -b bytes
              Specify the number of random bytes to include in the output.

       -x     Output a hexidecimal instead of a binary seed.

       -X     Force output of a binary seed, even if standard output is a tty

       -v     Turn on debugging message. Multiple -v options will increase the
              debugging level.  -h Display a summary of options.

AUTHORS

       Damien Miller <djm@mindrot.org>

SEE ALSO

       ssh(1), ssh-add(1), ssh-keygen(1), sshd(8)

                                April 14, 2002              SSH-RAND-HELPER(8)