---
name: "openvasclient-mkrand"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "openvas-client"
version: "1.0.4-1"
release: "Debian 5.0 (Lenny)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/openvasclient-mkrand"
---

# openvasclient-mkrand(1)

Creates a file with random bytes

## NAME

nessusclient-mkrand - Creates a file with random bytes

## SYNOPSIS

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

## DESCRIPTION

The  **Nessus 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, Nessus will provide OpenSSL with a file  full of random bytes generated by  **nessusclient-mkrand** which is stored by default under  *$HOME/.rnd*. **nessusclient-mkcert** and **nessusclient-mkcert** require user input as a random seed.

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

## SEE ALSO

[**nessus-adduser**(8)](/nessus-adduser/8.md), [**nessusd**(8)](/nessusd/8.md), [**nessus**(1)](/nessus/1.md), **nessusclient-mkcert**(8), **nessusclient-mkcert**(1), **[openssl(1)](/openssl/1.md)**

## MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NESSUS PROJECT

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

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

## AUTHOR

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