4 ms·

Show HN: r.ger.lv – simple random string generation

2 points by gerlv 10y ago

gerlv 10y ago
I've implemented a small tool for generating random strings, maybe someone else will find it useful. - r.ger.lv - default is 20 characters [a-zA-Z0-9] - r.ger.lv/<len> <len> of [a-zA-Z0-9] - r.ger.lv/s-<len> <len> of [a-zA-Z0-9_+-.,!@#$%^&*();\/|"'] `curl -L r.ger.lv/25` - if you want to run from the terminal. More info: https://www.ger.lv/simple-random-string-generation/ https://www.ger.lv/simple-random-string-generation/
- brudgers 10y ago
  My general concern with this type of service is that the strings could wind up directly in a rainbow table and that might defeat one of the reasons for using it. Not an accusation, just an observation about the limits of the service. Good luck.
stephenr 10y ago
So, I was joking when I said the next thing will be `println as a service`. This is not helping to disprove that prediction. What language doesn't have random string generation available either as a standard part of the runtime, or as a reliable library?
- moridin007 10y ago
  but is it really random or pseudorandom? i feel that services like these can be useful to introduce a higher level of entropy to your own local random number library
  - stephenr 10y ago
    > i feel that services like these can be useful to introduce a higher level of entropy to your own local random number library They just use /dev/urandom + sha512, and them capitalise some characters. You can pipe /dev/urandom input into any number of tools locally to get random strings - base64 is nice as it gives you a wider range of characters.
    - gerlv 10y ago
      guys, I think you over-estimate what this tool does. It's not a saas or something to be integrated with projects. The only reason I've made it is to avoid creating random strings every time I need them. In the past few months I've done the following at least 5 times: 1) run ipython 2) run the following code: import os import hashlib print(hashlib.sha512(os.urandom(128)).hexdigest()) The problem that it takes unnecessary time to do it. `curl -L r.ger.lv` is way simpler and faster for the same result. In fact, it's exactly the same code that's running on this site :) It's a small tool so you have fewer excuses to leave `SECURE_STRING = "TODO_CHANGEME"` in settings files. I did this tool mainly for myself, thought I'd share it, maybe someone finds it useful.
      - stephenr 10y ago
        > guys, I think you over-estimate what this tool does I don't at all. That's my whole point. You've taken yet another pretty simple command line utility, and made a "web service" for it. > In the past few months I've done the following at least 5 times I've probably generated 2x that many random strings just to generate test examples for how else this could be done, compare times, etc. I didn't suddenly think that I should put that on a http server somewhere. > maybe someone finds it useful or maybe someone uses it as a source of random data for their production application because they don't know any better. You can get random strings in a shell by running `base64 /dev/urandom | head -c 30`. If you wanted to make it (or your own solution) easier, why not just create a shell script (or a python script with a shebang line). Even easier execution (i.e., tab-completion to the path), no reliance on network or a server, no security issues by loading data over a remote connection.

2 points by gerlv 10y ago

gerlv 10y ago

I've implemented a small tool for generating random strings, maybe someone else will find it useful. - r.ger.lv - default is 20 characters [a-zA-Z0-9] - r.ger.lv/<len> <len> of [a-zA-Z0-9] - r.ger.lv/s-<len> <len> of [a-zA-Z0-9_+-.,!@#$%^&*();\/|"'] `curl -L r.ger.lv/25` - if you want to run from the terminal. More info: https://www.ger.lv/simple-random-string-generation/ https://www.ger.lv/simple-random-string-generation/

brudgers 10y ago
My general concern with this type of service is that the strings could wind up directly in a rainbow table and that might defeat one of the reasons for using it. Not an accusation, just an observation about the limits of the service. Good luck.

stephenr 10y ago

So, I was joking when I said the next thing will be `println as a service`. This is not helping to disprove that prediction. What language doesn't have random string generation available either as a standard part of the runtime, or as a reliable library?

moridin007 10y ago
but is it really random or pseudorandom? i feel that services like these can be useful to introduce a higher level of entropy to your own local random number library
- stephenr 10y ago
  > i feel that services like these can be useful to introduce a higher level of entropy to your own local random number library They just use /dev/urandom + sha512, and them capitalise some characters. You can pipe /dev/urandom input into any number of tools locally to get random strings - base64 is nice as it gives you a wider range of characters.
  - gerlv 10y ago
    guys, I think you over-estimate what this tool does. It's not a saas or something to be integrated with projects. The only reason I've made it is to avoid creating random strings every time I need them. In the past few months I've done the following at least 5 times: 1) run ipython 2) run the following code: import os import hashlib print(hashlib.sha512(os.urandom(128)).hexdigest()) The problem that it takes unnecessary time to do it. `curl -L r.ger.lv` is way simpler and faster for the same result. In fact, it's exactly the same code that's running on this site :) It's a small tool so you have fewer excuses to leave `SECURE_STRING = "TODO_CHANGEME"` in settings files. I did this tool mainly for myself, thought I'd share it, maybe someone finds it useful.
    - stephenr 10y ago
      > guys, I think you over-estimate what this tool does I don't at all. That's my whole point. You've taken yet another pretty simple command line utility, and made a "web service" for it. > In the past few months I've done the following at least 5 times I've probably generated 2x that many random strings just to generate test examples for how else this could be done, compare times, etc. I didn't suddenly think that I should put that on a http server somewhere. > maybe someone finds it useful or maybe someone uses it as a source of random data for their production application because they don't know any better. You can get random strings in a shell by running `base64 /dev/urandom | head -c 30`. If you wanted to make it (or your own solution) easier, why not just create a shell script (or a python script with a shebang line). Even easier execution (i.e., tab-completion to the path), no reliance on network or a server, no security issues by loading data over a remote connection.