Generate random bytes and numbers with OpenSSL

this set of functions generates random bytes or numbers from OpenSSL. This provides a cryptographically secure alternative to R's default random number generator. rand_bytes generates n random cryptographically secure bytes

Usage

rand_bytes(n = 1)

rand_num(n = 1)

Arguments

n

number of random bytes or numbers to generate

References

OpenSSL manual: https://docs.openssl.org/1.1.1/man3/RAND_bytes/

Examples

rnd <- rand_bytes(10)
as.numeric(rnd)
#>  [1] 120 176  85 201  35  20 231 226  71 134
as.character(rnd)
#>  [1] "78" "b0" "55" "c9" "23" "14" "e7" "e2" "47" "86"
as.logical(rawToBits(rnd))
#>  [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
#> [13]  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
#> [25]  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE
#> [37] FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE
#> [49]  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE
#> [61] FALSE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE
#> [73] FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE  TRUE

# bytes range from 0 to 255
rnd <- rand_bytes(100000)
hist(as.numeric(rnd), breaks=-1:255)


# Generate random doubles between 0 and 1
rand_num(5)
#> [1] 0.6532462 0.9887103 0.5164745 0.7013525 0.1122981

# Use CDF to map [0,1] into random draws from a distribution
x <- qnorm(rand_num(1000), mean=100, sd=15)
hist(x)


y <- qbinom(rand_num(1000), size=10, prob=0.3)
hist(y)