Report on the Development of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

Published

June 1, 2001

Author(s)

James R. Nechvatal, Elaine B. Barker, Lawrence E. Bassham, William E. Burr, Morris J. Dworkin, James Foti, E Roback

Abstract

In 1997, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated a process to select a symmetric-key encryption algorithm to be used to protect sensitive (unclassified) Federal information in furtherance of NIST's statutory responsibilities. In 1998, NIST announced the acceptance of fifteen candidate algorithms and requested the assistance of the cryptographic research community in analyzing the candidates. This analysis included an initial examination of the security and efficiency characteristics for each algorithm. NIST reviewed the results of this preliminary research and selected MARS, RC6 , Rijndael, Serpent and Twofish as finalists. Having reviewed further public analysis of the finalists, NIST has made a selection, which will be proposed for inclusion in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The research results and rationale for this selection are documented in this report.

Citation

Journal of Research (NIST JRES) -

Volume

106 No. 3

NIST Pub Series

Journal of Research (NIST JRES)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

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Keywords

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), cryptanalysis, cryptographic algorithms, cryptography, encryption, Rijndael

Citation

Nechvatal, J. , Barker, E. , Bassham, L. , Burr, W. , Dworkin, M. , Foti, J. and Roback, E. (2001), Report on the Development of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Journal of Research (NIST JRES), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=151226 (Accessed October 24, 2025)