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 pieces 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 |
X(1), xauth(1), md5sum(1) |
The mcookie command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/. |