How to generate secure random numbers?

I use Bcrypt to generate secure random numbers in a C project. It seems that MATLAB 'rand' function only support some pseudorandom algorithm, which is not satisfying. Is there a way to generate secure random numbers with MATLAB (without interact with another programming language)? Will Bcrypt be introduced into MATLAB?

[Dyuman Joshi]

" (without interact with another programming language) "

Depends on what you mean by interaction.

Secure Random Numbers as a programming concept seems to be only applied in Java, which is implemented below in MATLAB by calling a Java library.

Answer 1

[Hassaan]

1. Java Security Libraries:

MATLAB doesn't directly run on the JVM, it includes a JVM to enable interaction with Java code and libraries and has built-in support for Java. You can use Java's cryptographic libraries to generate secure random numbers:

% Create a Java SecureRandom object
secureRandom = java.security.SecureRandom();

% Generate secure random numbers
numBytes = 16;  % For 128-bit number
randomBytes = zeros(1, numBytes, 'uint8');
for i = 1:numBytes
    randomBytes(i) = secureRandom.nextInt(256);  % Generates a number between 0 and 255
end

% Convert each byte to a hexadecimal string representation
hexString = dec2hex(randomBytes);

% Concatenate the individual hex strings into one long string
hexString = strcat(hexString(:)');

disp(['Secure Random Hex: ', hexString]);

Secure Random Hex: 5DDF89C9703E37DD343BF18BD3FCFEDE

2. External Libraries via MEX:

If there's a specific cryptographic library or function you want to use (like Bcrypt), you can write a C/C++ program that uses this library and compile it to a MEX file that MATLAB can execute. This is a more advanced solution and requires familiarity with C/C++ and the MEX compilation process.

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[Dyuman Joshi]

"MATLAB runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)"

Are you sure about this?

[Hassaan]

@Dyuman Joshi Not really but what I meant:

Java Virtual Machine (JVM): While "MATLAB doesn't directly run on the JVM, it includes a JVM to enable interaction with Java code and libraries".

[Hassaan]

@Xiang Xu I used a similar approach for one of my client.

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If you find the solution helpful and it resolves your issue, it would be greatly appreciated if you could accept the answer. Also, leaving an upvote and a comment are also wonderful ways to provide feedback.

Professional Interests

• Technical Services and Consulting
• Embedded Systems
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[John D'Errico]

While this solution may work for now, there is no assurance it will work forever. That is, Java may not be usable from MATLAB forever.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_external/java-packages-to-be-removed.html#

(While I hope that is not the case since I depend on Java for one tool of my own, I don't make the decisions.)

[Adrián Lascurain]

Do you have any advice to guarantee access to java security library? I've seen that javaclasspath let you run certain functions of a java class object but I do not have much idea how to implement it.

Thanks beforehand.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

Will Bcrypt be introduced into MATLAB?

I very much doubt that Bcrypt will be included into MATLAB.

Is there a way to generate secure random numbers with MATLAB (without interact with another programming language)?

You can urlread() or equivalent to connect to a remote site that serves random numbers.

Answer 3

[Hassaan]

@Xiang Xu One of the new approach as pointed by @Walter Roberson [special thanks]. The demo usage can be:

% Example URL (replace with the service URL you want to use. For this demo i am using 'www.random.org')
randomNumberServiceURL = 'https://www.random.org/integers/?num=1&min=1&max=100&col=1&base=10&format=plain&rnd=new';
randomNumberServiceURLHex = 'https://www.random.org/integers/?num=1&min=1&max=100&col=1&base=16&format=plain&rnd=new';

% Retrieve a secure random number from the remote service
secureRandomNumber = webread(randomNumberServiceURL);
secureRandomNumberHex = webread(randomNumberServiceURLHex);

disp(['Secure Random: ', secureRandomNumber]);

Secure Random: 26

disp(['Secure Random Hex: ', secureRandomNumberHex]);

Secure Random Hex: 1a

Note:

• But obviously you need to have internet access to excess this external server URL.
• base=16 can be provided in the URL for Hex
• base=10 can be provided in the URL for DEC
• hex(dec_number) and int(hex_number, 16) can also be used for the respective conversion from one base to another

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If you find the solution helpful and it resolves your issue, it would be greatly appreciated if you could accept the answer. Also, leaving an upvote and a comment are also wonderful ways to provide feedback.

Professional Interests

• Technical Services and Consulting
• Embedded Systems
• Electrical and Electronics Engineering

[Walter Roberson]

disp(['Secure Random Hex: ', secureRandomNumber]);

Are you sure the result is Hex? You coded base=10 in the URL.

[Hassaan]

@Walter Roberson I missed on that. I have updated my answer. Thank you.