random array index returning values not contained

Applications Programming
1

For kicks I wrote up a Password generator after lunch. Let me start with the code:

unsigned int x,y,z,c;

unsigned int KISS();
unsigned int devrand();

int main( int argc, char** argv )
{
    int i, j = 1;
    char pwd[] = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
                 "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
                 "1234567890"
                 "!@#$";
    char password[12];

    if( argv[1] )
        j = atoi(argv[1]);

    do {
        memset( password, '\0', sizeof(password) );
        for( i = 0; i < sizeof(password); ++i )
            password = (char)pwd[(KISS() % strlen( pwd ))];
        printf("%s\n", password);
        --j;
    } while( j );

    return 0;
}
/*
 * Fairly popular Random Number generator
 */
unsigned int KISS()
{
    x = devrand();
    while(!(y=devrand())); // y must not be zero
    z = devrand();
    c = devrand();

    unsigned long long t;
    unsigned long long a = 698769069ULL;

    x = 69069*x + 12345;

    y ^= (y<<13);
    y ^= (y>>17);
    y ^= (y<<5);

    t = a*z+c;
    c = (t>>32);

    return x+y+(z=t);
}


/*
 * using a perfectly fine generator to generate a seed >.>"
 */
unsigned int devrand( void )
{
    int          f;
    unsigned int r;
    f=open("/dev/urandom", O_RDONLY);

    if( f == -1)          exit(-1); // ERROR?
    if( read(f,&r,4)!=4 ) exit(-1); // ERROR?

    close(f);
    return r;
}

( all there upon request )

Now this works just fine without issues but if I specify my array 'password' to be of say size 9 the program starts returning values not within the 'pwd' array.

Ive had it return quotes brackets and a bunch of various non printables.

Any idea's?

2

Post the entire code. You are missing the code listing for the random number generator KISS_RNG.

3

I tried just posting what was relevant but give me a sec.

Here is an example crap output with password[9]

You cant see it but there is some control character after the '-'

---- BIG EDIT ----

I think the code is eating the ending NULL Character as The output from 9 is longer than 9 characters which would explain why I get this crappy output

---

So the fix is subtracting 1 from sizeof( password )

Sorry, I oopsed all over this forum with a rookie mistake.

4

Some points:

You can't place more then 10 chars in the string password:

for( i = 0; i < sizeof(password)-1; ++i )

You must end the string with a NULL character before the printf statement.

password[i+1] = '\0'
printf("%s\n", password);

Regards

5

My memset sets the whole string to NULL for each password we decide to generate so just subtracting from sizeof() should be the end of it right?

But as a best practice Its probably best to do it the way you have said as I'm sure my memset is eating cpu time for no reason.

6

Better to use what Franklin52 suggested instead of setting all locations to NULL with memset.