mcookie - Unix, Linux Command
NAME
mcookie - generate magic cookies for xauth
SYNOPSIS
mcookie [-v] [-f filename ] DESCRIPTION
mcookie generates a 128-bit random hexadecimal number for use with the X authority
system. Typical usage:
xauth add :0 . mcookie
The "random" number generated is actually the output of the MD5 message
digest fed with various piece of random information: the current time, the
process id, the parent process id, the contents of an input file (if
-f is specified), and several bytes of information from the first of the
following devices which is present:
/dev/random, /dev/urandom, files in
/proc, /dev/audio.
BUGS
The entropy in the generated 128-bit is probably quite small (and,
therefore, vulnerable to attack) unless a non-pseudorandom number generator
is used (e.g.,
/dev/random under Linux).
It is assumed that none of the devices opened will block.
FILES
/dev/random
/dev/urandom
/dev/audio
/proc/stat
/proc/loadavg SEE ALSO
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