Random symmetric encryption keys are commonly used in various cryptographic algorithms and protocols for secure communication and data protection. The following are just a few of examples of where they are used:
- Database encryption
- Secure communication
- Password storage


# Code example
To generate a random symmetric encryption key, a coding example in Python is given below:

import secrets
from string import ascii_letters
from string import digits

def generate_random_symmetric_key():
  alphabets_digits = ascii_letters + digits
  encrypted_key = ''.join(secrets.choice(alphabets_digits) for i in range(10))
  return encrypted_key

print(generate_random_symmetric_key())

# Code explanation

- **Line 1:** We import the `secrets` module, which is utilized to generate random numbers with a high level of cryptographic strength.
- **Line 2:** We import `ascii_letters` from the `string` library, which contains a constant `string` with both lowercase and uppercase letters, i.e., "a" to "z" and "A" to "Z."
- **Line 3** We import `digits` from the `string` library, which contains a constant string with digits from "0" to "9."
- **Line 5:** We declare the function named `generate_random_symmetric_key`.
- **Line 6:** We concatenate the `ascii_letters` and `digits` string.
- **Line 7:** We generate a random string containing 10 characters by choosing characters randomly from `alphabets_digits` using `secrets.choice()`. The resulting string is stored in `encrypted_key` variable.
- **Line 8:** We return the `encrypted_key` variable.
- **Line 10:** We print the returned value.

How to generate a random symmetric encryption key in Python

Code example

Code explanation