How to use openssl to generate random bytes

Here's a quick trick to use openssl to generate random bytes.

To generate a random length of bytes use openssl as follows.

openssl rand <number>

For example to generate 16 random bytes, use the following

openssl rand 16
�j���G$�$�8�l�%

As you can see, some of these bytes are special characters. To generate only hexadecimal characters, use -hex flag.

openssl rand -hex 16
53ab2643e3a7b3aff571d331dfbc1b9a

To generate base64 characters, use the -base64 flag. This is also very useful for generating random passwords.

openssl rand -base64 16
ZO7QXlw/9WsPyUG+QFcYaQ==