[HN Gopher] NIST Selects 'Lightweight Cryptography' Algorithms t...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       NIST Selects 'Lightweight Cryptography' Algorithms to Protect Small
       Devices
        
       Author : sizzle
       Score  : 44 points
       Date   : 2023-02-08 18:44 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nist.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nist.gov)
        
       | transpute wrote:
       | _Ascon_ specs, reference code and benchmarks:
       | https://ascon.iaik.tugraz.at
       | 
       | Competitors: https://asecuritysite.com/light
        
       | mtgx wrote:
       | Lightweight = NSA-crackable, right?
        
       | fredoralive wrote:
       | I'm not a crypto expert, but you can get 8 bit Atmel / Microchip
       | AVRs with AES units on them (for example), are "special"
       | lightweight algorithms actually needed, or should we just be
       | encouraging the use of MCUs with suitable accelerators for proven
       | algorithms?
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | They're also expensive. At least last time I priced them out,
         | they cost more than the radio and MCU.
        
           | fredoralive wrote:
           | I was thinking of on chip accelerator units / peripherals,
           | like the AVR Xmega AES example, rather than external chips.
        
             | zokier wrote:
             | Afaik these LWCs are supposed to also be easier to
             | implement in HW (=smaller die area/gate count), but I'm
             | also wondering is the difference really meaningful
             | especially with current manufacturing tech? I imagine there
             | are limits on die size reductions where the returns really
             | start diminishing very quickly.
        
             | hra5th wrote:
             | A brief search on Mouser seems to indicate that The AVR
             | Xmega costs roughly 2.5 times as much as other 8 bit MCUs
             | from Atmel with comparable amounts of flash/RAM -- are
             | there other "selling point" on-chip perpiherals
             | significantly contributing to that cost?
        
               | fredoralive wrote:
               | Generally a lot more stuff than the average AVR, so
               | (IIRC) you have a multi level interrupt controller, a DMA
               | unit, more adaptable clock / power configuration, and
               | just more of things like UARTS and ADCs (which tended to
               | have more features) and so on[1]. It feels more like an
               | AVR core bolted onto something nearer to the "everything
               | and a kitchen sink" peripheral set you get with a 32 bit
               | ARM MCU. The projects I worked on weren't particularly
               | super cost sensitive though, so I'm perhaps a bit
               | isolated from the "every cent matters" level.
               | 
               | (Also, you'd probably just use one of those 32 bit ARM
               | chips nowadays).
               | 
               | [1] I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the AVR
               | range and haven't looked at in a couple of years, so I'm
               | sure some of the advanced stuff is available on Mega
               | models.
        
         | Avamander wrote:
         | You can also get crypto coprocessors to accelerate such
         | operations, without switching platforms or sacrificing for
         | example power usage.
        
         | tptacek wrote:
         | They're not just optimized to "fit" into small devices, but
         | also for handling things like ultra-small messages, which is a
         | common requirement in RF protocols.
        
       | throw0101c wrote:
       | Two algorithms by the were rejected by the ISO folks for an IoT
       | standard a few years ago:
       | 
       | * https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/04/two_nsa_algor...
       | 
       | * https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/09/iso_rejects_n...
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | Would you mind rephrasing? I'm confused by your comment.
        
       | tptacek wrote:
       | At last, Joan Daemen loses a NIST contest. :)
       | 
       | Presumably it helped that Ascon was also a CAESAR finalist.
       | 
       | Ascon is a Duplex Sponge construction, and an extremely good
       | introduction to that concept is here:
       | 
       | https://codahale.com/the-joy-of-duplexes/
       | 
       | (Xoodyak, Coda's preferred Duplex, was a contestant --- Daemen's
       | contestant, in fact.)
        
         | SeanAnderson wrote:
         | Your link redirects to a random Wikipedia if the referrer is
         | HN.
        
           | sebsebmc wrote:
           | Right-click open in incognito works, but definitely annoying
        
           | tptacek wrote:
           | I don't know that it's random.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-02-08 23:00 UTC)