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mcookie - generate magic cookies for xauth
mcookie [-v] [-f
filename ]
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.
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.
/dev/random
/dev/urandom
/dev/audio
/proc/stat
/proc/loadavg
X(1)
, xauth(1)
, md5sum(1)
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