My problem is generating an individual symmetric key which can be used as a session key. I looked at all symmetric crypto functions, but didn't seem to find one that could generate a key on its own. Maybe I overlooked something. Anyone have any suggestions?
Normally a symmetric key is just a random string of appropriate length. DES and 3DES keys are an exception, because some bits of the keys are defined as parity bits similar to the parity bit at RS232-Interfaces. Second, DES is known to have some weak and semi-weak keys, which one should avoid. On the other hand there are afaik only 4 weak and 12 semi-weak keys, so the chance to get such a key randomly is minimal. Iirc has OpenSSL functions to set the parity bits of DES keys and test for key weakness, look out for the documentation of the DES functions.
Ciao,
Richard
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Dr. Richard W. Könning
Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH
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