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National Institute of Standards and Technology Search [ ] Search CSRC MENU Search [ ] Search * Projects * Publications Expand or Collapse Drafts for Public Comment All Public Drafts Final Pubs FIPS Special Publications (SPs) NISTIRs ITL Bulletins White Papers Journal Articles Conference Papers Books * Topics Expand or Collapse Security & Privacy Applications Technologies Sectors Laws & Regulations Activities & Products * News & Updates * Events * Glossary * About CSRC Expand or Collapse Computer Security Division + Cryptographic Technology + Secure Systems and Applications + Security Components and Mechanisms + Security Engineering and Risk Management + Security Testing, Validation, and Measurement Applied Cybersecurity Division + Cybersecurity and Privacy Applications + National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) + National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Contact Us Information Technology Laboratory Computer Security Resource Center Computer Security Resource Center CSRC Logo Projects Lightweight Cryptography Project Links Overview News & Updates Events Publications Presentations Overview There are several emerging areas (e.g. sensor networks, healthcare, distributed control systems, the Internet of Things, cyber physical systems) in which highly-constrained devices are interconnected, typically communicating wirelessly with one another, and working in concert to accomplish some task. Because the majority of current cryptographic algorithms were designed for desktop/server environments, many of these algorithms do not fit into constrained devices. NIST has initiated a process to solicit, evaluate, and standardize lightweight cryptographic algorithms that are suitable for use in constrained environments where the performance of current NIST cryptographic standards is not acceptable. NIST has published a call for algorithms (test vector generation code) to be considered for lightweight cryptographic standards. The deadline for submitting algorithms has passed. Round 1 Candidates NIST received 57 submissions to be considered for standardization. After the initial review of the submissions, 56 were selected as Round 1 Candidates. Round 2 Candidates Due to the large number of submissions and the short timeline of the NIST lightweight cryptography standardization process, some of the candidates were eliminated from consideration early in the first evaluation phase in order to focus analysis on the more promising candidates. Of the 56 Round 1 candidates, 32 were selected to continue to Round 2. Finalists On March 29, 2021, NIST announced ten finalists as ASCON, Elephant, GIFT-COFB, Grain128-AEAD, ISAP, Photon-Beetle, Romulus, Sparkle, TinyJambu, and Xoodyak Software Benchmarking * Microcontroller Benchmarking by NIST LWC team * AVR/ARM Microcontroller Benchmarking by Rhys Weatherley * AVR/ARM/RISC-V Microcontroller Benchmarking by Sebastian Renner, Enrico Pozzobon, and Jurgen Mottok * RISC-V Benchmarking by Fabio Campos, Lars Jellema, Mauk Lemmen, Lars Muller, Daan Sprenkels, and Benoit Viguier * eBACS (ECRYPT Benchmarking of Cryptographic Systems): General-purpose Processor (Intel, AMD, ARM Cortex-A, Qualcomm) Benchmarking Hardware Benchmarking * FPGA Benchmarking by Kamyar Mohajerani, Richard Haeussler, Rishub Nagpal, Farnoud Farahmand, Abubakr Abdulgadir, Jens-Peter Kaps, and Kris Gaj * ASIC Benchmarking by Mustafa Khairallah, Thomas Peyrin, and Anupam Chattopadhyay * ASIC Benchmarking by M. D. Aagaard and N. Zidaric Next Steps * The final round of the standardization process is expected to last approximately 12 months. NIST will host a workshop near the end of the evaluation period. Timeline Date Event July 20-21, 2015 First Lightweight Cryptography Workshop at NIST August 11, 2016 (Draft) NISTIR 8114 is published. October 17-18, 2016 Second Lightweight Cryptography Workshop at NIST End of public comment period to Draft NISTIR October 31, 2016 8114 Public comments received (August 11 - October 31,2016) March 28, 2017 NISTIR 8114, Report on Lightweight Cryptography is published. April 26, 2017 (Draft) Profiles for Lightweight cryptography standardization process is published. June 16, 2017 Public comments received (April 26 - June 16, 2017) (Draft) Submission Requirements and Evaluation May 14, 2018 Criteria for the Lightweight cryptography standardization process is published. May 14, 2018 Federal Register Notice is published. End of public comment period to the submission June 28, 2018 requirement. Public comments received (May 14-June 28, 2018). August 27, 2018 Federal Register Notice is published Submission Requirements and Evaluation Criteria August 27, 2018 for the Lightweight Cryptography Standardization Process is published. January 4, 2019 Early submission deadline for early feedback February 25, 2019 Submission deadline March 29, 2019 Amendment Deadline April 18, 2019 Announcement of the Round 1 Candidates August 30, 2019 Announcement of Round 2 Candidates NISTIR 8268, Status Report on the First Round of October 7, 2019 the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Standardization Process is published November 4-6, 2019 Third Lightweight Cryptography Workshop at NIST October 19-21, 2020 Fourth Lightweight Cryptography Workshop (virtual) March 29, 2021 Announcement of Finalist Candidates NISTIR 8369, Status Report on the Second Round of July 21, 2021 the NIST Lightweight Cryptography Standardization Process is published. May 9-11, 2022 Fifth Lightweight Cryptography Workshop (virtual) Project Links Overview News & Updates Events Publications Presentations Additional Pages Round 1 Candidates Round 2 Candidates Finalists Email List Contacts Lightweight Crypto Technical Inquiries lightweight-crypto@nist.gov Lawrence Bassham Donghoon Chang Deukjo Hong Jinkeon Kang John Kelsey Kerry McKay Meltem Sonmez Turan Noah Waller Group Cryptographic Technology Topics Security and Privacy: cryptography Related Projects Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Masked Circuits for Block-ciphers Multi-Party Threshold Cryptography Additional Pages Round 1 Candidates Round 2 Candidates Finalists Email List Contacts Lightweight Crypto Technical Inquiries lightweight-crypto@nist.gov Lawrence Bassham Donghoon Chang Deukjo Hong Jinkeon Kang John Kelsey Kerry McKay Meltem Sonmez Turan Noah Waller Group Cryptographic Technology Topics Security and Privacy: cryptography Related Projects Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Masked Circuits for Block-ciphers Multi-Party Threshold Cryptography Created January 03, 2017, Updated November 02, 2021 National Institute of Standards and Technology logo HEADQUARTERS 100 Bureau Drive Gaithersburg, MD 20899 * twitter (link is external) * facebook (link is external) * linkedin (link is external) * instagram (link is external) * youtube (link is external) * rss * govdelivery (link is external) Want updates about CSRC and our publications? 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