Is that safe to use ramdom.random() for key to encrypt?

[Jon Clements]

On Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:31:04 +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 12:15 PM, Yesterday Paid
> <howmuchistoday at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm making cipher program with random.seed(), random.random() as the
>> key table of encryption.
>> I'm not good at security things and don't know much about the algorithm
>> used by random module.
> 
> For security, you don't want any algorithm, you want something like
> /dev/random (on Unix-like platforms).
> 
> I'm pretty sure Python includes crypto facilities. Unless it (most
> oddly) lacks these batteries, I would recommend using one of them
> instead.
> 
> ChrisA

Cryptography is a complex subject - I've had the (mis)fortune to study it 
briefly.

Whatever you do - *do not* attempt to write your own algorithm. 

Python includes hashlib (forms of SHA and MD5) and uuid modules, but I 
take it a symmetric or possibly public/private key system is required - 
depending on what you want to secure, where it's stored and who needs 
access.

I generally find a separate partition with an encrypted file-system 
(which is fairly straight forward on *nix systems or I think there's a 
product out there that works with Windows), is a lot easier and puts the 
load on the filesystem/OS instead of having to be handled in your 
application is a lot simpler.

Jon