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Reading from dev/urandom - system behaviour

8 votes
2 answers
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When reading from dev/urandom, with say head or dd, it’s of course expected that the output is always random and different. How is this handled by UNIX at a low level? Is the file naturally truncated on reading or instead is the file actually an interface for a symmetric cipher or equivalent and as such “reading” is actually the act of executing the cipher.
Asked by Woodstock (458 rep)
Aug 24, 2020, 09:07 PM
Last activity: Aug 24, 2020, 09:44 PM