mt_srand

mt_getrandmax

Last updated: Fri, 16 May 2008

mt_rand

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

mt_rand — Generate a better random value

Description

int mt_rand ( void )

int mt_rand ( int $min , int $max )

Many random number generators of older libcs have dubious or unknown characteristics and are slow. By default, PHP uses the libc random number generator with the rand() function. The mt_rand() function is a drop-in replacement for this. It uses a random number generator with known characteristics using the » Mersenne Twister, which will produce random numbers four times faster than what the average libc rand() provides.

If called without the optional min , max arguments mt_rand() returns a pseudo-random value between 0 and RAND_MAX. If you want a random number between 5 and 15 (inclusive), for example, use mt_rand (5, 15).

Note: As of PHP 4.2.0, there is no need to seed the random number generator with srand() or mt_srand() as this is now done automatically.

Parameters

min: Optional lowest value to be returned (default: 0)
max: Optional highest value to be returned (default: RAND_MAX)

Return Values

A random integer value between min (or 0) and max (or RAND_MAX, inclusive)

ChangeLog

Version	Description
Since 3.0.7	In versions before 3.0.7 the meaning of `max` was `range` . To get the same results in these versions the short example should be rand (5, 11) to get a random number between 5 and 15.

Examples

Example #1 mt_rand() example


<?php
echo mt_rand() . "\n";
echo mt_rand() . "\n";

echo mt_rand(5, 15);
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

1604716014
1478613278
6


Below, andrei suggested a function for generating a list of unique integers, randomly arranged.  In response to a note below that his solution is inefficient, I'm providing an O(N) solution which should be much more efficient, yet still yield a good guarantee of producing randomly ordered integers.



<?php

function SwapShuffle($min, $max) {

  $last = $max - $min;



  for ($i=0; $i<=$last; $i++) {

    $arr[$i] = $min + $i;

  }



  for ($run=0; $run<7; $run++) {

    for ($i=0; $i<=$last; $i++) {

      $target = mt_rand(0, $last);

      $swap = $arr[$target];

      $arr[$target] = $arr[$i];

      $arr[$i] = $swap;

    }

  }



  return $arr;

}



// Call as:

$result = SwapShuffle(10, 30);

foreach ($result as $num) {

  echo "$num\n";

}

?>

geompse at yopmail dot com
29-Mar-2008 05:01


mt_rand() is not faster than rand() !



Tested over 100'000 iterations, with none/various/random arguments, mt_rand is always 3% slower than rand().

guilhem at dublin dot ie
25-Mar-2008 02:09


I'm sorry to say, "andrei at novanetworks dot ro"'s method seems higly unefficient to me. It's good if called few times only, but when most of the numbers have already been used, the function has to loop many times before finding an available option.



When I know I need to call most of the numbers from a range, I create a list of the numbers in the range, get a random index from this list, then return and delete the item of the list at the picked index. More memory usage if called many times, but probably less computation time on average.

andrei at novanetworks dot ro
23-Mar-2008 12:04


Here's a simple function i've made for generateing unique random numbers. Be carefull, the function will go into an infinite loop if you request more unique numbers then the given range (ex. if you call unic(1, 5) five times it's ok, but the 6'th time it will go into an infinite loop).



$unic_arr = array(); //the array in witch the used numbers are stored.



function unic($min, $max) {

global $unic_arr;

    $rand = mt_rand($min, $max);

    $tf = 1;

    while(true) {

        if(!in_array($rand, $unic_arr)) {

            $tf = 0;

            break;

        }

        else $rand = mt_rand($min, $max);

    }

    array_push($unic_arr, $rand);

    return $rand;

}



//to call the function use:



unic($min, $max); //ex. unic(1000, 9999);

William Leslie
13-Feb-2008 09:24


Do not rely on the strength of any 'home-brewed' cryptographic algorithm, such as the one posted by dmoree at coker dot edu.  Algorithms such as MD5 and SHA-1 have been the subject of intense academic research and have known security properties.



While it is true that MD5 and SHA-1 are generally no longer recommended for use in new cryptosystems, there are newer algorithms such as SHA-256 that address the older algorithms' weaknesses.  These newer algorithms have not received quite as much scrutiny as their older counterparts, but have still been studied much more carefully than your home-brewed algorithm, most likely.



Dmoree at coker dot edu's concern about rainbow tables is best addressed by a properly applied salting technique.  Every bit of 'salt' added to a cryptographic hash effectively extends the complexity of the password and thus the size of the rainbow table needed to crack it.



Furthermore, wisely chosen password strength policies can mitigate such attacks.

dmoree at coker dot edu
29-Jan-2008 07:49


Here is a simple encryption algorithm I made a few months ago. I was tired of MD5 because they have rainbow tables out that will crack most any MD5 pass. Along with SHA. So encryption algorithms are getting weaker all the time. So here is new one for people to try and crack. So far no one has told me they cracked it. I also use it to generate very random passwords or character segments. Below the function is the random string generator. I tested this algorithm with mt_rand over 10 million iterations without one duplicate string. So use it in good health!



<?php

// Hexi-decimal encryption function

// Returns: 64 character encrypted string

// NOTE: One-Way encryption only

function HexCrypt($string = "", $salt = ""){

    if(strlen(trim($string)) == 0){

        $string = " ";

    }

    if(strlen(trim($salt)) == 0){

        $salt = " ";

    }

    $string = $salt.$string.$salt;

    $lastchar = "";

    $output = "";

    $saltlength = "0x".dechex(strlen($salt));



    while(strlen($output) < 64){

        $firstchar = "0x".dechex(ord(substr($string, strlen($salt), 1)));

        for($i = 0; $i < strlen($string); $i++){

            $strlength = "0x".dechex($output+$i+3);

            if(strlen($output) >= 64){

                break(2);

            }elseif($lastchar == ""){

                $lastchar = "0x".dechex(ord(substr($string, $i, 1)));

            }else{

                $current = "0x".dechex(ord(substr($string, $i, 1)));

                $total = ($lastchar * $current) * ($firstchar * $saltlength);

                $output .= dechex($total);

                $lastchar = "";

            }

        }

   

        if((strlen($string)%2) == 1){

            $total = ($lastchar * $firstchar) * ($firstchar * $saltlength);

            $output .= dechex($total);

        }



        $string = $output;

        $output = "";

    }



    if(strlen($output) != 0){

        $output = substr($output, 0, 64);

    }else{

        $output = substr($string, 0, 64);

    }



    return($output);

}



// Generates an 8 character random string

$length = 8;

$string = "";



for($i = 0; $i < 32; $i++){

    $string .= mt_rand(0,9);

}



$start = mt_rand(0, (64-$length));

$salt = substr($string, mt_rand(0,20), 12);

echo "Random String: ".substr(HexCrypt($string, $salt), $start, $length)."\n";

?>

przemek at sobstel dot org
16-Jan-2008 11:00


note that OWASP's "Guide to Cryptography" says that a Mersenne Twister (that is used by mt_rand()) "is nowhere near as good as CryptoAPI’s secure random number generation options, OpenSSL, or /dev/urandom which is available on many Unix variants. mt_rand() has been noted to produce the same number on some platforms."



remember that rand() is even weaker.

jfkallen at hotmail dot com
24-Dec-2007 03:37


mt_rand does not seem to truly generate random numbers.  Im not sure exactly which of the following is more accurate as I was applying the following to sock price deviations which do not follow normal distributions (exactly at least).





If you group observations in 11 buckets such that each bucket represents 10 percentiles and run mt_rand(0,10) 100 times you would expect a simlar result as if you ran 100 iterations of mt_rand(0,100) where each bucket represents 1 1 percentile range.





FYI I think things work slightly better as the range of mt_rand increases.


#$data is a numerical (not associative) array of numbers





sort($data);


$data_size = count($data);


#num_groups is the number of buckets


$num_groups = min($num_groups,$data_size);


$ile_size = $data_size / $num_groups;





//following creates the buckets


$groups[] = $data[0];


for ($i=1;$i<$num_groups;$i++){


  $x = $i * $ile_size;


  $i1 = floor($x);


  $i2 = ceil($x);


  $d1 = $data[$i1];


  $d2 = $data[$i2];


  $var = 1 - ($x-$i1);


  $groups[] = ($d1 * $var) + ($d2 * (1-$var));


}


$groups[] = $data[$data_size-1];





//RUN The Random number generator





$value = array();


for ($j=0;$j<$depth;$j++){


 $t = mt_rand($lower_limit,$upper_limit);


 $value[] = $this->m_groups[$t];


}





//The end result is that as the number of groupas increase the accuracy (ie turue randomness seems to increase proportionally more (up to point).  This is not the way it should work in nature.

root at mantoru dot de
25-Nov-2007 06:47


I needed a function that returns true with a probability of n%, so here's what I came up with:



<?php

function probability($chance, $out_of = 100) {

    $random = mt_rand(1, $out_of);

    return $random <= $chance;

}

?>



A few usage examples:



<?php

/* 50% chance, equal to (bool)mt_rand(0, 1) */

var_dump(probability(50));

/* 0.1% chance, floats will not work -- "1 out of 1000 cases" */

var_dump(probability(1, 1000));

/* Practical example */

if (probability(10)) {

    $damage *= 1.75; // Critical hit!

}

?>

fabiovh on gmail
13-Nov-2007 06:42


performance: for a repetitive task, it's much faster not to use the limit parameters, as shown below. just use the % operator.



$t=microtime(true);

for($i=0;$i<1000000;$i++)

 mt_rand()%3;

echo microtime(true)-$t;



echo '|';



$t=microtime(true);

for($i=0;$i<1000000;$i++)

 mt_rand(0,2);

echo microtime(true)-$t;



echo '|';



$t=microtime(true);

for($i=0;$i<1000000;$i++)

 mt_rand();

echo microtime(true)-$t;



output: 0.316797971725|0.442242145538|0.253082036972

bradpeabody at scientology dot net
03-Oct-2007 02:49


[Editorial note: This suggested "security" improvement simply punts the issue to the operating system: there is no guarantee that the operating system will work any better than the Mersenne twister (although it may have more entropy available)]





If you want some random text that is more secure than what can get from a built in PHP method, you can simply do:





<?php


$myRandomText = shell_exec('head -c 128 < /dev/urandom');


?>





That will get around the fact that rand() and mt_rand() are a bad place to start generating something that is supposed to be cryptographically secure.





The only down sides to this that I see are:


a) Ugly


b) Slow (have to launch external processes)


c) Not portable (can't do this on Windows)





But if you can live with that, this will be much more secure than using rand() or mt_rand().





- Brad

www.mrnaz.com
24-Jul-2007 10:00


This function uses mt_rand() to create a random string of specified length from an optionally supplied string of characters. It is good for generating passwords that only consist of alphanumeric characters or codes that must consist of a defined character space such as for barcodes. It can also be used to generate random hexadecimal numbers for things like encryption keys.



It is very fast, and allows for generation of strings of unlimited length.



<?php

function rand_string($len, $chars = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789')

{

    $string = '';

    for ($i = 0; $i < $len; $i++)

    {

        $pos = rand(0, strlen($chars)-1);

        $string .= $chars{$pos};

    }

    return $string;

}

?>

rok dot kralj at gmail dot com
16-Jun-2007 12:42


mt_rand function returns just a whole numbers. If you want a random float, then here's an elegant way:



<?php

function random_float ($min,$max) {

   return ($min+lcg_value()*(abs($max-$min)));

}

?>

Paul Nolasco
09-May-2007 12:45


Here's a more user friendly password generator. You want to make it easier for the user to enter the new password.



Output:

- First character is capitalize

- Rest of the characters are either number or letters (lowercase)



You can change the probability depending on your taste. Also by default it generates a 8-character long password.



<?php

function genPassword($length=8)

{

    # first character is capitalize

    $pass =  chr(mt_rand(65,90));    // A-Z

    

    # rest are either 0-9 or a-z

    for($k=0; $k < $length - 1; $k++)

    {

        $probab = mt_rand(1,10); 

    

        if($probab <= 8)   // a-z probability is 80%

            $pass .= chr(mt_rand(97,122));

        else            // 0-9 probability is 20%

            $pass .= chr(mt_rand(48, 57));

    }

    return $pass;

}

?>

Jonathan at jooped dot co dot uk
05-May-2007 08:04


An easier password generator than earlsinclair2001.



function easyPassGen($length=10){

$enc = sh1(mt_rand().mt_rand().mt_rand());

$password = sub_str($enc, 1, $length);

return $password;

}



Might help someone (pretty simple though).

earlsinclair2001 at yahoo dot com
11-Apr-2007 10:46


Here's my shot at writing a secure password generator function:



<?php



function passwordgenerator()

{    

    $password = "";

    $loop = 0;

    while ($loop < 12)

    {

        $randomchar = chr(mt_rand(35, 126));

        if (!strstr($password, $randomchar))

        {

            $password .= $randomchar;

            $loop++;

        }

    }

    return $password;

}

chagenbu at php dot net
21-Mar-2007 10:18


The algorithm used by mt_rand() changed in PHP 5.2.1. If you are relying on getting the same sequence from mt_rand() after calling mt_srand() with a known seed, upgrading to PHP 5.2.1 will break your code. See http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=40724 for something of an explanation; there is no workaround.

12-Mar-2007 01:36


In one of my forums was a discussion about, how to change an image randomly, so i wrote this code using mt_rand .... 



I hope you can use it .... 



I Forgot something, sorry for that, but here is the correction.



<?php 

  //ImageChange.php 



  error_reporting(0);//hide the notice for the missing $iRand



  $sPath2ImageDir = Path;//preventing redundancy

  $aImages        = scandir($sBildOrdnerPfad);//Dir 2 Array

  $iImageCount    = count($aImages);//preventing redundancy

 

  while (getimagesize("{sPath2ImageDir}/{$aImages[$iRand]}")) {//recursion to get an image

   $iRand = mt_rand(2, $iImageCount-1);//min = 2 because $aImages[0] = "." and $aImages[1] = ".."

  }

   

  echo "<img alt=\"Image{$iRand}\" src=\"{sPath2ImageDir}/{$aImages[$iRand]}\" title=\"Image{$iRand}\" />";//show the image



  unset($aImages, $iImageCount, $iRand, $sBildOrdnerPfad);//if this script is used in another script

?>

Rene at mokiba dot de
10-Mar-2007 02:00


Here is my Function to generate an Array with unique random Numbers between "$from" and "$to".



<?php

function random_number_array($count, $from, $to){

   for($i=$from;$i<$to;$i++){

   $number_array[] = $i;

   }

   $random_number_array = array();

   mt_srand ((double) microtime() * 1000000);

   for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++){

     $random_number            = mt_rand(0,count($number_array)-1);

     $key_to_insert_and_delete = array_search($random_number, $number_array);

     $random_number_array[$i]    = $number_array[$key_to_insert_and_delete];

     array_splice($number_array, $key_to_insert_and_delete, 1);

   }

   // Array $random_number_array with $count random Numbers, between $from and $to

   return $random_number_array;

}

?>



I hope its helping you.



Greetings



Rene Andris

Rene at mokiba dot de
10-Mar-2007 11:50


Here is my Function to generate an Array with unique random Numbers between "$from" and "$to".



function random_number_array($count, $from, $to){

   for($i=$from;$i<$to;$i++){

    $number_array[] = $i;

   }

   $random_number_array = array();

   mt_srand ((double) microtime() * 1000000);

   for($i=0;$i<$count;$i++){

      $random_number            = mt_rand(0,count($number_array)-1);

      $key_to_insert_and_delete = array_search($random_number, $number_array);

      $random_number_array[$i]    = $number_array[$key_to_insert_and_delete];

      array_splice($number_array, $key_to_insert_and_delete, 1);

   }

   // Array $random_number_array with $count random Numbers, between $from and $to

   return $random_number_array;

}



I hope its helping you.



Greetings



Rene Andris

heavyraptor
14-Feb-2007 03:26


since my mt_rand_n() function isn't too fast I created a faster and easier function:



<?php

function mt_rand_exclusive($min,$max,$ex) {

  while (true) {

    if (!in_array($rand = mt_rand($min,$max),(array)$ex))

      return $rand;

  }

}

?>



Have fun

zolaar at nothanks dot com
07-Feb-2007 10:44


a better (and likely faster) way to generate a random 6-digit hex string:



<?php

$num = mt_rand ( 0, 0xffffff ); // trust the library, love the library...

$output = sprintf ( "%06x" , $num ); // muchas smoochas to you, PHP!

return $output;

?>



The mt_rand function won't give you a number outside the bounds you asked for -- no need to and-off the top bits -- and the sprintf function has params for length-padding & hexidecimal output.  It's likely faster because most of the work is being done by the wicked fast C functions that PHP sits on top of, though YMMV in that dept.

heavyraptor
12-Dec-2006 09:47


If you need a random number but not the numbers in a specified array, you may use my function below:



<?php

function mt_rand_n($min,$max,$disallowed) {

  // $a must be an array

  if (!is_array($disallowed))

    return false;



  // Create an array with the numbers from $min to $max

  // without the numbers in $disallowed.

  // - range() to create an array with the numbers from $min to $max

  // - array_diff() to create the allowed numbers

  // - since array_diff() doesn't change the keys, we've to change them with

  //   array_values(), to get an normal order (0,1,2,3 ... )

  $numbers = array_values(array_diff(range($min,$max),$disallowed));



  // size of $numbers must be greater than 0

  if (count($numbers) < 1)

    return false;



  // create random number and return it

  return $numbers[mt_rand(0,count($numbers) - 1)];

}



// Example:

$min = 0;

$max = 10;

$disallowed = array(0,1,2,3,4,9,10); // the numbers 1,2,3,6,7, and 8 are disallowed



for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++)

  var_dump(mt_rand_n($min,$max,$disallowed));

?>



I hope it helps someone ...

Btw. here's the "un-comment" function:

<?php

function mt_rand_n($min,$max,$disallowed) {

  if (!is_array($disallowed)) return false;

  $numbers = array_values(array_diff(range($min,$max),$disallowed));

  if (count($numbers) < 1) return false;

  return $numbers[mt_rand(0,count($numbers) - 1)];

}

?>



Have fun :)

MagicalTux at ooKoo dot org
20-Nov-2006 07:34


In answer to David and pHp_n00b, about generating a random 6 characters hexadecimal string...



Well, the easiest solution would be :

<?php

$rand = mt_rand(0x000000, 0xffffff); // generate a random number between 0 and 0xffffff

$rand = dechex($rand & 0xffffff); // make sure we're not over 0xffffff, which shouldn't happen anyway

$rand = str_pad($rand, 6, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT); // add zeroes in front of the generated string

echo $rand;

?>



Some examples of generated stuff :

8514d2

3188ae

028f3e

444397

1de508

071662



You can easily make a function from this code.

Chris
10-Nov-2006 11:35


>Running the output of Mersenne Twister through an unkeyed >secure hash is NOT a good way to make it secure, because it'll >still have a relatively small internal state which, if recovered, >would allow reproduction of the keystream.  A better idea >would be to encrypt the output with a keyed encryption >algorithm - but if you were going to do that, you wouldn't >need a psuedorandom number generator at all, because a >counter would be just as good.



Not true. Mersenne Twister has an ENORMOUS amount of internal state - 4992 bits, bigger than practically any cipher's key length. The point of a secure random number generator is that you cannot predict future outputs based on past OUTPUTS, which is why a hash is applied. Clearly you can predict the future output of any pseudorandom number generator if you can acquire the internal state - a better algorithm will never solve this problem. If you use keyed encryption, recovering the key allows you to predict future outputs.

David
06-Nov-2006 12:40


Shouldn't it be a greater than (>) sign rather than a not equal (!=) sign? Because you're just checking to see if it is exactly six. So if it is 7 it, won't try to fix it. So wouldn't this be better?

<?

//....

if (strlen($random_hex) < "6") // sometimes it returns an only 5, or less, char Hex-Code,

   hexcode();        // so the function has to be repeat

elseif (strlen($random_hex) > "6") // sometimes it returns 7 or more characters

//...I don't know how to make it do only six, but your code seems to only check to make sure it doesn't do less than 6; nothing to counter doing more than 6.... so here would be some code to reduce the size back to 6 if it went over.

else

   echo $random_hex; // returns the Hex-Code

}

//...

?>

pHp_n00b
26-Sep-2006 07:00


<?php



// Generates a max."6 char" Hex-Code



function hexcode()

{



$min = hexdec("000000"); // result is 0    and sets the min-value for mt_rand

$max = hexdec("FFFFFF"); // result is 16777215 and sets the max-value for mt_rand



$random = mt_rand($min, $max); // creates a radom number between 0 and 16777215



$random_hex = dechex($random); // transforms the random number into a Hex-Code



// now the test, if the result has 6 chars



if (strlen($random_hex) != "6") // sometimes it returns an only 5, or less, char Hex-Code, 

    hexcode();        // so the function has to be repeat

else

    echo $random_hex; // returns the Hex-Code

}



hexcode();



?>

MagicalTux at ooKoo dot org
25-Aug-2006 05:44


Since many people wrote little scripts to generate random sequences, I'll also give mine (which is slightly faster since it makes use of strlen only once, and uses strings instead of arrays) :



<?php

function code($nc, $a='abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789') {

    $l=strlen($a)-1; $r='';

    while($nc-->0) $r.=$a{mt_rand(0,$l)};

    return $r;

}

?>

arias at elleondeoro dot com
29-May-2006 02:03


Be carefull with: $characters[mt_rand(0, count($characters))];



"If you want a random number between 5 and 15 (inclusive), for example, use mt_rand (5, 15)."



Array index are between 0 and n-1, but mt_rand generates a number between 0 and n!

James
15-Apr-2006 11:02


The Developers Resources article mentioned above should be removed as that site has be down for years. The same article by Gregory Boshoff is available at http://www.phpfive.net/article2.htm

rollerce at gmail dot com
15-Feb-2006 05:38


I know a bunch of you have posted little snippets for random number generation, but here's a nifty (in my opinion) little thing I just wrote to create a 10 digit code with hyphens in it. It also negates the use of 0, O, 1, and I, to avoid confusion. I am ALWAYS willing to accept input so if any of you has suggestions to streamline the code, please let me know.



<?php

      function GetID($x){      



         $characters = array("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "J", "K", "L", "M", "N", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9");

         shuffle($characters);



         for (; strlen($ReqID)<$x;){

           $ReqID .= $characters[mt_rand(0, count($characters))];

          }



         return $ReqID;

         

        }      

      



       $ReqID .= GetID(3);

       $ReqID .= "-";

       $ReqID .= GetID(4);

       $ReqID .= "-";

       $ReqID .= GetID(3);



       echo $ReqID

      

?>

ripat at lumadis dot be
07-Nov-2005 08:38


Yet another snippet to generate a password.

<?php

  $acceptedChars = 'azertyuiopqsdfghjklmwxcvbnAZERTYUIOPQSDFGHJKLMWXCVBN0123456789'; 

  $max = strlen($acceptedChars)-1;

  $password = null;

  for($i=0; $i < 8; $i++) { 

    $password .= $acceptedChars{mt_rand(0, $max)}; 

  }

  echo $password;

?>

I have tried several ways of doing it but this simple one seems to be the fastest.

fahri at konse dot de
08-Oct-2005 09:12


i did the following, to generate a few random-numbers out of a total amount of numbers, but to create different random-numbers and not double or tripple.

for example i use it to generate 10 random-pics out of 150, and do shurely generate not twice the same...



<?php

$total =  6; // available numbers (of pictures)

$randanzahl = 6; //number of random-number to generate out of $total



function checkifdouble($ran,$i) {

        for($j=1; $j<$i; $j++) {

                if($ran[$j]==$ran[$i]) {

                        $ergebnis="true";

                        break;

                } //endif

                else {

                        $ergebnis="false";

                } //endelse

        } //endfor

return $ergebnis;

}



for ($i=1; $i<=$randanzahl; $i++) {

       $ran[$i] = mt_rand(1, $total);

       if ($i>1) {

               while(checkifdouble($ran,$i)=="true") {

                       $ran[$i] = mt_rand(1, $total);

                       $v=checkifdouble($ran,$i);

                       echo($v);

               } //endif

       }

       echo($ran[$i]."<br>");



} //enfor

?>



this version is easily for debugging and adaption!

maybe there is a very shorter version...

phil [underscore] ozil at hotmail dot com
07-Oct-2005 06:13


Quit bothering yourselves.

All it takes to create a secure random-generated password is those three lines:



<?php

$pass = "";

// Generate a 8 char password

for ($i=0; $i<8; $i++)

  $pass .= chr(mt_rand(35, 126));

?>



Note:

In this example, the character's ASCII values range from 35 to 126.



For character's ASCII codes please check:

http://www.keller.com/html-quickref/latin1.html

frans-jan at van-steenbeek dot net
03-Oct-2005 07:18


My try at generating a reasonably secure password:



<?php

 function keygen() {

  $tempstring =

  "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNO

  PQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABC

  DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!?@#$%&*[]{}();:,<>~+=-_

  /|\\";

  for($length = 0; $length < mt_rand(10, 15); $length++) {

   $temp = str_shuffle($tempstring);

   $char = mt_rand(0, strlen($temp));

   $pass .= $temp[$char];

  }

  return $pass;

 }

 echo(keygen());

 echo("\n");

?>



This generates a password of an undefined length (in this case, 10 to 15 chars) consisting of numbers, UPPERCASE letters lowercase letters and a set of signs. I have doubled the chance of number and letters to reduce the confusion with my users.

sean at codeaholics dot com
22-Jul-2005 06:31


You really shouldn't generate a number to determine the _type_ of the char, then the char itself.  If security is an issue for you, and you want to maintain as much entropy as possible, you should use a function similar to the one below.  Since this seems to be getting repeated over-and-over, I explained (beat into the ground?) the issue on http://www.codeaholics.com/randomCode.php





The code:


<?php


////


// Returns a random code of the specified length, containing characters that are


// equally likely to be any of the digits, uppercase letters, or  lowercase letters.


//


// The default length of 10 provides 839299365868340224 (62^10) possible codes.


//


// NOTE: Do not call wt_srand().  It is handled automatically in PHP 4.2.0 and above


//       and any additional calls are likely to DECREASE the randomness.


////


function randomCode($length=10){


    $retVal = "";


    while(strlen($retVal) < $length){


        $nextChar = mt_rand(0, 61); // 10 digits + 26 uppercase + 26 lowercase = 62 chars


        if(($nextChar >=10) && ($nextChar < 36)){ // uppercase letters


            $nextChar -= 10; // bases the number at 0 instead of 10


            $nextChar = chr($nextChar + 65); // ord('A') == 65


        } else if($nextChar >= 36){ // lowercase letters


            $nextChar -= 36; // bases the number at 0 instead of 36


            $nextChar = chr($nextChar + 97); // ord('a') == 97


        } else { // 0-9


            $nextChar = chr($nextChar + 48); // ord('0') == 48


        }


        $retVal .= $nextChar;


    }


    return $retVal;


}


?>

mina86 at nospam dot projektcode dot org
24-May-2005 05:00


Re: solenoid at hotmail dot united dot kingdom



In theory method shown by selenoid can lead to infinite loop. The correct method would be:



<?php

$randomNumbers = array();

for ($i = 0; i<30; ++$i) $randomNumbers[] = $i;

shuffle($randomNumbers);

for ($i = 20; $i<30; ++$i) unset($randomNumbers[$i]);

$randomNumbers = array_values($randomNumbers);

?>



The last two lines may be in some cases removed.

nowhere at where dot net
16-Apr-2005 02:46


Allows characters 0-9, a-z

Weighted (and tested) ok.



<?php

function generate_string ($length = 20)

{

    $nps = "";

    for($i=0;$i<$length;$i++)

    {

        $nps .= chr( (mt_rand(1, 36) <= 26) ? mt_rand(97, 122) : mt_rand(48, 57 ));

    }

    return $nps;

}

?>

mskala at ansuz dot sooke dot bc dot ca
23-Jan-2005 03:47


Running the output of Mersenne Twister through an unkeyed secure hash is NOT a good way to make it secure, because it'll still have a relatively small internal state which, if recovered, would allow reproduction of the keystream.  A better idea would be to encrypt the output with a keyed encryption algorithm - but if you were going to do that, you wouldn't need a psuedorandom number generator at all, because a counter would be just as good.

timr at onlinehome dot de
12-Aug-2004 04:24


The correct address of the inventor's FAQ is (http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/efaq.html). They state that Mersenne Twister may be used for cryptography if you do some post-processing:



"Mersenne Twister is not cryptographically secure. (MT is based on a linear recursion. Any pseudorandom number sequence generated by a linear recursion is insecure, since from sufficiently long subsequence of the outputs, one can predict the rest of the outputs.)



To make it secure, you need to use some Secure Hashing Algorithm with MT. For example, you may gather every eight words of outputs, and compress them into one word (thus the length of the output sequence is 1/8 of the original one)."

11-Feb-2004 05:27


Here is a example of a very small, compact, quite random-random string generator. It will make a string with uppercase & lowercase letters, with numbers. You simply need to set $len in the for() structure, and then the string will be in $r.  It has been designed for size, while it's still quite fast.  Mind the wrapping, it should be 1 line.



<?php 

for($len=8,$r='';strlen($r)<$len;$r.=chr(!mt_rand(0,2)?

mt_rand(48,57):(!mt_rand(0,1)?mt_rand(65,90):mt_rand

(97,122))));

?>



Armond Carroll

tmx at ntlworld dot com
06-Dec-2003 01:26


When using this function, it doesn't matter which order the numbers go in.



      mt_rand(16,5)



works just as well as



      mt_rand(5,16)



Which can be useful if you are pulling values from a database, that could be negative or positive.



      mtrand(0,$anyinteger)



Hope this helps someone

daeken_9999 at yahoo dot com
08-Jul-2003 02:44


This is a fixed version of the gaussrand() function defined in a note above.



<?php

function gaussrand()

{

    static $V2, $V1, $S;

    static $phase = 0;

    if (phase == 0)

    {

        while ($S >= 1 || $S == 0)

        {

            $V1 = 2 * (rand() / getrandmax()) - 1;

            $V2 = 2 * (rand() / getrandmax()) - 1;

            $S = $V1 * $V1 + $V2 * $V2;

        }

        $X = $V1 * sqrt(-2 * log($S) / $S);

    }

    else

        $X = $V2 * sqrt(-2 * log($S) / $S);

    $phase = 1 - $phase;

    return $X;

}

?>

jsheets at shadonet dot com
04-Jun-2003 01:49


The following function will create a random base64 encoded key, this is very useful for password reset schemes or anything where you want a random string.  To compare the string either compare the base64 encoded value or base64_decode it and compare that.





I do not use md5 because md5 results in only 1-9 and a-f in the string or 32^16 possibilities, by using the extended ASCII table and shuffling the array I am able to get a minimum of 32^127 possibilities with a 32 character string, using a longer string will make your value harder to guess still. A lot of machiens will have 32^255 possibilities in a decoded string.





<?php


function MakeResetKey($min_length = 32, $max_length = 64)


{


   $key = '';





   // build range and shuffle range using ASCII table


   for ($i=0; $i<=255; $i++) {


      $range[] = chr($i);


   }





   // shuffle our range 3 times


   for ($i=0; $i<=3; $i++) {


      shuffle($range);


   }





      // loop for random number generation


   for ($i = 0; $i < mt_rand($min_length, $max_length); $i++) {


      $key .= $range[mt_rand(0, count($range))];


   }





   $return = base64_encode($key);





   if (!empty($return)) {


      return $return;


   } else {


      return 0;


   }


}


?>

demogracia at metropoliglobal dot com
02-Mar-2002 12:38


<?php


//


// Generates a random string with the specified length


// Chars are chosen from the provided [optional] list


//


function simpleRandString($length=16, $list="0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"){


    mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000);


    $newstring="";





    if($length>0){


        while(strlen($newstring)<$length){


            $newstring.=$list[mt_rand(0, strlen($list)-1)];


        }


    }


    return $newstring;


}





//


// Generates a random string with the specified length


// Includes: a-z, A-Z y 0-9


//


function randString($length=16) {


   $newstring="";


   if($length>0) {


       while(strlen($newstring)<$length) {


           $randnum = mt_rand(0,61);


           if ($randnum < 10) {


               $newstring.=chr($randnum+48);


           } elseif ($randnum < 36) {


               $newstring.=chr($randnum+55);


           } else {


               $newstring.=chr($randnum+61);


           }


       }


   }


   return $newstring;


}


?>

amcclung at stetson dot edu
18-Apr-2001 01:27


Here's an elegant way of generating a random float value within a certain range:





$range = $upperBound-$lowerBound;


$num = $lowerBound + $range * mt_rand(0, 32767)/32767;





You should now have a floating point number between your $lowerBound (i.e. 0.5) and $upperBound (0.75) values.

mrdlinux at yahoo dot com
20-Jul-2000 10:02


And for those who prefer scaling:





mt_rand() / RAND_MAX * (Max - Min) + Min;

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