Status Report on the First Round of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process

Published

January 31, 2019

Author(s)

Gorjan Alagic, Jacob M. Alperin-Sheriff, Daniel Apon, David Cooper, Quynh H. Dang, Carl Miller, Dustin Moody, Rene Peralta, Ray Perlner, Angela Robinson, Daniel Smith-Tone, Yi-Kai Liu

Abstract

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is in the process of selecting one or more public-key cryptographic algorithms through a public competition-like process. The new public- key cryptography standards will specify one or more additional digital signature, public-key encryption, and key-establishment algorithms to augment FIPS 186-4, Digital Signature Standard (DSS), as well as special publications SP 800-56A Revision 2, Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete Logarithm Cryptography, and SP 800-56B, Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key-Establishment Schemes Using Integer Factorization. It is intended that these algorithms will be capable of protecting sensitive information well into the foreseeable future, including after the advent of quantum computers. In November 2017, 82 candidate algorithms were submitted to NIST for consideration. Among these, 69 met both the minimum acceptance criteria and our submission requirements, and were accepted as First-Round Candidates on Dec. 20, 2017, marking the beginning of the First Round of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process. This report describes the evaluation criteria and selection process, based on public feedback and internal review of the first-round candidates, and summarizes the 26 candidate algorithms announced on January 10, 2019 for moving forward to the second round of the competition. The 17 Second-Round Candidate public-key encryption and key-establishment algorithms are BIKE, Classic McEliece, CRYSTALS- KYBER, FrodoKEM, HQC, LAC, LEDAcrypt (merger of LEDAkem/LEDApkc), NewHope, NTRU (merger of NTRUEncrypt/NTRU-HRSS-KEM), NTRU Prime, NTS-KEM, ROLLO (merger of LAKE/LOCKER/Ouroboros-R), Round5 (merger of Hila5/Round2), RQC, SABER, SIKE, and Three Bears. The 9 Second Round Candidates for digital signatures are CRYSTALS-DILITHIUM, FALCON, GeMSS, LUOV, MQDSS, Picnic, qTESLA, Rainbow, and SPHINCS+.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 8240

Report Number

8240

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8240

Local Download

Keywords

cryptography, digital signatures, post-quantum cryptography, public-key encryption, key- establishment mechanism (KEM), quantum resistant, quantum safe

Citation

Alagic, G. , Alperin-Sheriff, J. , Apon, D. , Cooper, D. , Dang, Q. , Miller, C. , Moody, D. , Peralta, R. , Perlner, R. , Robinson, A. , Smith-Tone, D. and Liu, Y. (2019), Status Report on the First Round of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Process, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8240, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927303 (Accessed April 26, 2024)