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Use CSPRNG for generating password salts - #16775
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What: Use a Cryptographically Secure Pseudo-Random Number Generator (CSPRNG) for generating internal user password salts instead of a standard PRNG. Why: The `rand` module in Erlang is a PRNG and is not cryptographically secure. While a salt primarily needs to be globally unique rather than strictly unpredictable, modern security standards (such as NIST) recommend using a CSPRNG for all cryptographic material, including salts.
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michaelklishin
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Jun 23, 2026
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Good find.
A mandatory mention of backwards compatibility: this new function produces a value of the same length/width (4 bytes) and the salt value is embedded into the user record in the internal database, so this change is entirely backwards compatible.
This was referenced Jun 23, 2026
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What:
Use a Cryptographically Secure Pseudo-Random Number Generator (CSPRNG) for generating internal user password salts instead of a standard PRNG.
Why:
The
randmodule in Erlang is a PRNG and is not cryptographically secure. While a salt primarily needs to be globally unique rather than strictly unpredictable, modern security standards (such as NIST) recommend using a CSPRNG for all cryptographic material, including salts.