Apache::Session::Generate::MD5(3) Use MD5 to create random object IDs

SYNOPSIS


use Apache::Session::Generate::MD5;
$id = Apache::Session::Generate::MD5::generate();

DESCRIPTION

This module fulfills the ID generation interface of Apache::Session. The IDs are generated using a two-round MD5 of a random number, the time since the epoch, the process ID, and the address of an anonymous hash. The resultant ID number is highly entropic on Linux and other platforms that have good random number generators. You are encouraged to investigate the quality of your system's random number generator if you are using the generated ID numbers in a secure environment.

This module can also examine session IDs to ensure that they are, indeed, session ID numbers and not evil attacks. The reader is encouraged to consider the effect of bogus session ID numbers in a system which uses these ID numbers to access disks and databases.

This modules takes one argument in the usual Apache::Session style. The argument is IDLength, and the value, between 0 and 32, tells this module where to truncate the session ID. Without this argument, the session ID will be 32 hexadecimal characters long, equivalent to a 128-bit key.

AUTHOR

This module was written by Jeffrey William Baker <[email protected]>.