---
name: "openvas-mkrand"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "openvas-server"
version: "2.0.3-3"
release: "Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/openvas-mkrand"
---

# openvas-mkrand(1)

Creates a file with random bytes

## NAME

openvas-mkrand - Creates a file with random bytes

## SYNOPSIS

**openvas-mkrand \[***filename* **\[***entropy***\] \]**

## DESCRIPTION

The  **OpenVAS Security Scanner** protects the communication between the client and the server by using SSL.  To work securely, the OpenSSL library needs a suitable amount of random bytes.  On most system, it uses EGD or  */dev/random* (or  */dev/urandom*).

On systems which have none of these, OpenVAS will provide OpenSSL with a file  full of random bytes generated by  **openvas-mkrand** which is stored by default under  *$HOME/.rnd*. **openvas-mkcert** and **openvas-mkcert-client** require user input as a random seed.

By default,  **openvas-mkrand** produces a file stored under  *$HOME/.rnd* containing 1024 bytes of entropy.

## SEE ALSO

[**openvas-adduser**(8)](/openvas-adduser/8.md), [**openvasd**(8)](/openvasd/8.md), **openvas**(1), [**openvas-mkcert**(8)](/openvas-mkcert/8.md), [**openvas-mkcert-client**(1)](/openvas-mkcert-client/1.md), **[openssl(1)](/openssl/1.md)**

## MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE OpenVAS PROJECT

The canonical places where you will find more information  about the OpenVAS project are:

http://www.openvas.org/ ⟨⟩ (Official site)\
 http://cvs.openvas.org/ ⟨⟩ (Developers site)

## AUTHOR

**openvas-mkrand** was written by Michel Arboi \<arboi@algoriel.fr\>.