Mirror of forum.nim-lang.org

13974 :: `import std/random` or `std/sysrand` breaks all SSL in Nim 2.2.10 on macOS

• geohuz (orginal) [2026-06-10T21:46:06+02:00] view original

  Environment

  • Nim 2.2.10
  • macOS 26 (Darwin 25.5.0)
  • OpenSSL via system / Homebrew

  Steps to reproduce

  
  # test.nim
  import std/[asyncdispatch, asyncnet]
  import std/random          # ← this line breaks everything
  
  proc main() {.async.} =
    let sock = newAsyncSocket()
    await sock.connect("stream.binance.com", Port(9443))
    let ctx = newContext(protSSLv23)
    wrapConnectedSocket(ctx, sock, handshakeAsClient, "stream.binance.com")
    echo "SSL OK"
  
  waitFor main()
  Run

  Compile and run:

  
  nim c -d:ssl -r test.nim
  Run

  Result

  
  Error: unhandled exception: error:140040E5:SSL routines:CONNECT_CR_SRVR_HELLO:ssl handshake failure [SslError]
  Run

  Bisected

  • Comment out import std/random → SSL works perfectly.
  • Add import std/random back → SSL breaks immediately.
  • Same behavior with import std/sysrand.
  • Same behavior on net.wrapConnectedSocket (sync) and httpclient + proxy SSL.
  • SSL_library_init() reinit does not help.
  • protTLSv1 / protSSLv23 / CVerifyPeer — all affected.

  random module's static initializer appears to corrupt OpenSSL's global state at the C lib level. The ws library imports random for masking key generation, which poisons any downstream project using it with SSL.

---

• ringabout (orginal) [2026-06-11T13:33:41+02:00] view original

  Would you mind opening an issue on the Nim repo? I cannot reproduce the issue on macOS 26.5.1

---

• geohuz (orginal) [2026-06-11T15:16:55+02:00] view original

  I retested with a clean standalone reproduction and can no longer trigger the bug on my current environment. It may have been a transient nimcache or OpenSSL version issue. Closing this report — apologies for the noise.

---