Since bytestring-0.12 ShortByteString is just a newtype over ByteArray, a common data type shared by base, text and primitive.

I think we can make class Random more useful if we swap

-genShortByteString :: Int -> g -> (ShortByteString, g)
+genByteArray Int -> g -> (ByteArray, g) 

This way we can shave off dependency on bytestring and do not impose it on our users.

There does not seem to be many users of genShortByteString in the wild. Potentially we can provide a compatibility shim:

genShortByteString :: Coercible a ByteArray => Int -> g -> (a, g)
genShortByteString = coerce genByteArray