secrets — Generate secure random numbers

The secrets module is used for generating cryptographically strong random numbers suitable for managing data such as passwords, account authentication, and security tokens. It is preferred over the random module for security-related tasks.

import secrets

Generating Tokens

import secrets

# Generate a secure random token in hex format (great for API keys/URLs)
token = secrets.token_hex(16)  # 16 bytes = 32 hex digits
print(token)  # '639f727c9bdcc... '

# URL-safe text token (Base64)
url_safe = secrets.token_urlsafe(32)

# Raw bytes
byte_token = secrets.token_bytes(16)

Secure Random Choices

import secrets
import string

# Create a secure 12-character alphanumeric password
alphabet = string.ascii_letters + string.digits
password = ''.join(secrets.choice(alphabet) for i in range(12))
print(password)

Secure Comparison

import secrets

# Use this to compare tokens/passwords to prevent timing attacks
secrets.compare_digest("secret_token", "secret_token") # True

API Reference

Random Generation

Function	Description
`secrets.choice(seq)`	Return a randomly chosen element from a non-empty sequence.
`secrets.randbelow(n)`	Return a random int in the range [0, n).
`secrets.randbits(k)`	Return an int with k random bits.

Tokens

Function	Description
`secrets.token_bytes([nbytes=None])`	Return a random byte string containing nbytes number of bytes.
`secrets.token_hex([nbytes=None])`	Return a random text string, in hexadecimal. The string has 2 * nbytes characters.
`secrets.token_urlsafe([nbytes=None])`	Return a random URL-safe text string, containing nbytes random bytes.

Utilities

Function	Description
`secrets.compare_digest(a, b)`	Return True if strings a and b are equal, using a timing-attack resistant comparison.