sfmt-erlang security notice 8-JAN-2020: regarding the Ambionics Security's PHP mt_seed() vulnerability

Kenji Rikitake kenji@REDACTED
Wed Jan 8 05:03:53 CET 2020


The following is the security notice of sfmt-erlang, a random number module
for Erlang based on SFMT, regarding the recently revealed attack against
PHP mt_seed() vulnerability.
I've already updated hex.pm/sfmt with a new package including the following
security notice.
-- Kenji Rikitake

## Security notice regarding the PHP mt_seed() vulnerability

Ambionics Security published [an internal state retrieval algorithm of PHP
`mt_rand()`](https://www.ambionics.io/blog/php-mt-rand-prediction) on
6-JAN-2020. sfmt-erlang uses the same seed-to-internal-state initialization
algorithm at the function `init_gen_rand/1`.

For reducting the possibility of the internal state revelation, use
`init_by_list32/1` instead, better combined with `rand:uniform/1`. [Raimo
Niskanen published a piece of code for this purpose](
http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2018-July/095875.html).

*Note well that sfmt-erlang has no cryptographic security guarantee and
MUST NOT be used for security purposes such as password generation.*

Also: Version 0.13.0 and 0.13.1 Erlang and C code files are identical.
Users have no need to upgrade.
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