SHA-3 hash contest enters second round
Crypto Olympiad hots up
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The competition for the next generation of cryptographic hash algorithms has moved on to its second stage.
Fourteen candidates have been selected by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is running the contest, to progress onto the next round in the competition to define the algorithm that will underpin SHA-3 (Secure Hash Algorithm 3). NIST expects to competition, which began in 2008, to climax after four years in 2012.
Of 51 entries submitted to NIST in round one, around a third remain. The others have been rejected for reasons such as the discovery of cryptographic weaknesses, performance issues or voluntary withdrawal. The 14 remaining candidates are: BLAKE, Blue Midnight Wish, CubeHash, ECHO, Fugue, Grøstl, Hamsi, JH, Keccak, Luffa, Shabal, SHAvite-3, SIMD, and Skein.
Hash functions are important in digital signatures and other cryptographic functions. Recent advances in the cryptanalysis of hash functions, together with improvements in computing performance, mean that older hash functions (such as MD5 and even SHA-1) are no longer secure, prompting a decision to launch the new competition.
Teams of competing cryptographers are being invited to take a bash at cracking each others algorithms, or at least unearthing potential flaws in their opponents' approaches.
The overall competition is similar to the contest for the algorithm to underpin the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). ®
COMMENTS
Just as long as...
...my pron can be encrypted safely away from enforcement agencies I'll be happy.
But this thing is like those...
...Japanese obstacle course competitions. They're grueling as anything, they're time-limited...and most critically, there's no guarantee of a winner. So what happens when, as the deadline looms, it's discovered that NONE of the algorithms are cryptographically safe for the purposes of SHA-3 while all prior algorithms are slowly being picked apart, leaving you with shark fins on both sides of you?
Cryptography should be slow
Like programming languages and compilers, you want to take time to vet this stuff. Once its out there, it tends to get stuck.
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