Cryptographic showdown, Round 2: NIST picks 14 hash algorithms

By William Jackson
GCN.com
Jan 05, 2010

The competition to select the new Secure Hash Algorithm standard for government has moved into the second round. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has winnowed the 64 algorithims submitted down to 14 semifinalists.

Of the 64 algorithms submitted in 2008, 51 met minimum criteria for acceptance in the competition. The cryptographic community spent the next year hammering at the candidates, looking for flaws and weaknesses.

"We were pleased by the amount and quality of the cryptanalysis we received on the first round candidates, and more than a little amazed by the ingenuity of some of the attacks," said Bill Burr, manager of NIST's Security Technology Group, in announcing the initial narrowing of the field in July.

Submitters of algorithms that made it through the first round of competition had until September to tweak the specifications or source code, and the final list of second round contenders was recently announced. The 14 second-round candidates are called BLAKE, BLUE MIDNIGHT WISH, CubeHash, ECHO, Fugue, Grstl, Hamsi, JH, Keccak, Luffa, Shabal, SHAvite-3, SIMD, and Skein. Candidate algorithms are available online at www.nist.gov/hash-competition

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