Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Recommendation for Cryptographic Key Generation

Published

Author(s)

Elaine B. Barker, Allen L. Roginsky

Abstract

Cryptography is often used in an information technology security environment to protect data that is sensitive, has a high value, or is vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure or undetected modification during transmission or while in storage. Cryptography relies upon two basic components: an algorithm (or cryptographic methodology) and a cryptographic key. This Recommendation discusses the generation of the keys to be managed and used by the approved cryptographic algorithms.
Citation
Special Publication (NIST SP) - 800-133
Report Number
800-133

Keywords

asymmetric key, key agreement, key derivation, key generation, key wrapping, key replacement, key transport, key update, private key, public key, symmetric key

Citation

Barker, E. and Roginsky, A. (2012), Recommendation for Cryptographic Key Generation, Special Publication (NIST SP), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-133 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created December 20, 2012, Updated March 1, 2021