g_random_*() is based on GRand, which is not a CSPRNG. Instead, rely on
kernel to give us good random numbers, which is what nm_random_*() does.
Note that nm_random_*() calls getrandom() (or reads /dev/urandom), which
most likely is slower than GRand. It doesn't matter for our uses though.
It is cumbersome to review all uses of g_rand_*() whether their usage of
a non-cryptographically secure generator is appropriate. Instead, just
always use an appropriate function, thereby avoiding this question. Even
glib documentation refers to reading "/dev/urandom" as alternative. Which
is what nm_random_*() does. These days, it seems unnecessary to not use
the best random generator available, unless it's not fast enough or you
need a stable/seedable stream of random numbers.
In particular in nmcli, we used g_random_int_range() to generate
passwords. That is not appropriate. Sure, it's *only* for the hotspot,
but still.
In the end, it turned out I don't need them. They still seem useful,
because they show how to use this API. In particular for how the
bitfield should be parsed.
We use clang-format for automatic formatting of our source files.
Since clang-format is actively maintained software, the actual
formatting depends on the used version of clang-format. That is
unfortunate and painful, but really unavoidable unless clang-format
would be strictly bug-compatible.
So the version that we must use is from the current Fedora release, which
is also tested by our gitlab-ci. Previously, we were using Fedora 34 with
clang-tools-extra-12.0.1-1.fc34.x86_64.
As Fedora 35 comes along, we need to update our formatting as Fedora 35
comes with version "13.0.0~rc1-1.fc35".
An alternative would be to freeze on version 12, but that has different
problems (like, it's cumbersome to rebuild clang 12 on Fedora 35 and it
would be cumbersome for our developers which are on Fedora 35 to use a
clang that they cannot easily install).
The (differently painful) solution is to reformat from time to time, as we
switch to a new Fedora (and thus clang) version.
Usually we would expect that such a reformatting brings minor changes.
But this time, the changes are huge. That is mentioned in the release
notes [1] as
Makes PointerAligment: Right working with AlignConsecutiveDeclarations. (Fixes https://llvm.org/PR27353)
[1] https://releases.llvm.org/13.0.0/tools/clang/docs/ReleaseNotes.html#clang-format
