Dual_EC_DRBG and OpenSSL on a Mac Since there is not much info anywhere on the Internet related to this:


Does anyone know if OpenSSL's default CSPRNG is Dual_EC_DRBG or not?
Their wiki is not very clear…
Related to the first question, does anyone have any experience with OpenSSL on Mac changing the default CSPRNG?
Well, I think OpenSSL has documented this pretty well:


  If an alternative RAND_METHOD implementation is being used (either set
  directly or as provided by an ENGINE module), then it is entirely
  responsible for the generation and management of a cryptographically
  secure PRNG stream. The mechanisms described below relate solely to
  the software PRNG implementation built in to OpenSSL and used by
  default.
  
  These functions implement a cryptographically secure pseudo-random
  number generator (PRNG). It is used by other library functions for
  example to generate random keys, and applications can use it when they
  need randomness.
  
  ...
  
  The RAND_SSLeay() method implements a PRNG based on a cryptographic hash function.
  
  ...
  
  hash function; currently SHA-1


So that is certainly not Dual_EC_DRBG. You can switch RNG method by using RAND_set_rand_method but setting a different ENGINE should be preferred for newer applications.

Note that it would not hurt to check this in the source of the openssl implementation you are using. I don't believe it has changed yet, but openssl documentation is not known for its, eh, "up to dateness".