One slide reads:
" SECRET and TOP SECRET data must be approved with a Type I algorithm
- BATON
- AES (sufficient key length)
- SKIPJACK"(I believe the BATON algorithm itself is still classified.)
This is a major milestone in cryptography. I believe it is the first time in modern history that the public knowingly has access to a cipher that the U.S. Government currently considers strong enough for Top Secret information.
Note that the CNSS fact sheet goes on to say:
"The implementation of AES in products intended to protect national security systems and/or information must be reviewed and certified by NSA prior to their acquisition and use."
Another interesting presentation at the same NIST workshop was by Bill Burr on NIST's Cryptographic Standards Program. http://csrc.nist.gov/wireless/S04_NIST_crypto_program_final-bb.pdf It has a nice chart comparing the strengths of various crypto primitives based on their key length (page 7). Anther slide (page 13) contains the following interesting statement:
"Proposed 80-bit crypto end of use date: 2015"
Based on the page 7 chart, this presumably includes SHA1, Skipjack, 1024-bit RSA/DSA and 160-bit ECC.
Arnold Reinhold
At 12:34 PM -0400 4/14/04, Vin McLellan wrote:
I missed that announcement too -- but Wikipedia, the web-based Free Encyclopedia, caught it! See Wikipedia on AES at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES
The Wikipedia module on AES Security has a link to the same NSA fact sheet Steve mentioned.
I was surprised. I thought, as in so many other things, the NSA was going to say one thing and do another.
Suerte, _Vin
At 4/14/2004, Steve Bellovin wrote:
I haven't seen this mentioned on the list, so I thought I'd toss it out. According to http://www.nstissc.gov/Assets/pdf/fact%20sheet.pdf , AES is acceptable for protecting Top Secret data. Here's the crucial sentence:
The design and strength of all key lengths of the AES algorithm (i.e., 128, 192 and 256) are sufficient to protect classified information up to the SECRET level. TOP SECRET information will require use of either the 192 or 256 key lengths.
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