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The NIST Hash Competition

Published

Author(s)

William E. Burr

Abstract

Since the discovery of collision attacks against several well known cryptographic hash functions in 2004 there has been a rush of new cryptanalytic results that cast doubt on our current hash function standards. The relatively new NIST SHA-2 standards are not yet immediately threatened, but their long term viability is now questioned.  NIST has therefore begun an international competition to select a new SHA-3 standard.  This article outlines the competition, its rules, the requirements for the hash function candidates, and the process that NIST will use to select the final winning SHA-3 standard.
Citation
IEEE Security & Privacy
Volume
6
Issue
3

Keywords

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), algorithm, competition, cryptography, hash functions, Standard Hash Algorithm (SHA), security

Citation

Burr, W. (2008), The NIST Hash Competition, IEEE Security & Privacy, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=152084 (Accessed April 23, 2024)
Created May 20, 2008, Updated February 19, 2017