Announcing Development of a Federal Information Processing Standard for Advanced Encryption Standard

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology

[Docket No. 960924272-6272-01]

RIN 0693-ZA13

Announcing Development of a Federal Information Processing

Standard for Advanced Encryption Standard

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),

Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: A process to develop a Federal Information Processing Standard

(FIPS) for Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) incorporating an Advanced

Encryption Algorithm (AEA) is being initiated by the National Institute

of Standards and Technology (NIST). As the first step in this process,

draft minimum acceptability requirements and draft criteria to evaluate

candidate algorithms are being published for comment. Also announced

for comment are draft submission requirements. An open, public workshop

on the draft minimum acceptability requirements, evaluation criteria

and submission requirements has also been scheduled. It is intended

that the AES will specify an unclassified, publicly disclosed

encryption algorithm capable of protecting sensitive government

information well into the next century.

The purpose of this notice is to solicit views from the public,

manufacturers, voluntary standards organizations, and Federal, state,

and local government users so that their needs can be considered in the

process of developing the AES.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 2, 1997.

The AES Evaluation Criteria/Submission Requirements Workshop will

be held on April 15, 1997, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Director, Computer

Systems Laboratory, Attn: FIPS for AES Comments, Technology Building,

Room A231, National Institute of Standards and Technology,

Gaithersburg, MD 20899.

Electronic comments may be sent to [email protected]

Comments received in response to this notice will be made part of

the public record and will be made available for inspection and copying

in the Central Records and Reference Inspection Facility, Room 6020,

Herbert C. Hoover Building, 14th Street between Pennsylvania and

Constitution Avenues, NW, Washington, DC, 20230.

The AES Criteria Workshop will be held at the Green Auditorium,

Administration Building, National Institute of Standards and

Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland. Copies of the comments submitted

will be available at the Workshop. For planning purposes, advance

registration is encouraged. To register, please fax your name, address,

telephone, fax and e-mail address to 301-948-1233 (Attn: AES Criteria

Workshop) by April 10, 1997. Registration will also be available at the

door. The workshop will be open to the public.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Edward Roback, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Building

820, Room 426, Gaithersburg, MD 20899; telephone 301-975-3696 or via

fax at 301-948-1233. Technical inquiries regarding the proposed draft

evaluation criteria and draft submission requirements should be

addressed to Miles Smid, National Institute of Standards and

Technology, Building 820, Room 426, Gaithersburg, MD 20899; telephone

301-975-2938 or via fax at 301-948-1233.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This work effort is being initiated pursuant

to NIST's responsibilities under the Computer Security Act of 1987, the

Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996, Executive Order

13011, and OMB Circular A-130.

NIST recognizes that many institutions, both within and outside the

Federal Government, have considerable investments in their current

installed base of encryption equipment implementing the Data Encryption

Algorithm, specified in the Data Encryption Standard (DES, Federal

Information Processing Standard 46-2). DES was first approved in 1977

and was most recently reaffirmed by the Secretary in 1993, until

December 1998. In 1993 the following statement was included in the

standard:

``At the next review (1998), the algorithm specified in this

standard will be over twenty years old. NIST will consider alternatives

which offer a higher level of security. One of these alternatives may

be proposed as a replacement standard at the 1998 review.''

It is NIST's review that a multi-year transition period will be

necessary to move toward any new encryption standard and that DES will

continue to be of sufficient strength for many applications. NIST will

consult with all interested parties so that a smooth transition can be

accomplished.

In order to provide a basis for the evaluation of encryption

algorithms submitted to be considered as the AEA for incorporation into

the FIPS for AES, evaluation criteria will be used to review submitted

algorithms. Comments on the draft criteria (and, at the appropriate

time, or candidate algorithms) from voluntary consensus standards

organizations are particularly encouraged.

Proposed Draft Minimum Acceptability Requirements and Evaluation

Criteria

The draft minimum acceptability requirements and evaluation

criteria are:

A.1 AES shall be publicly defined.

A.2 AES shall be a symmetric block cipher.

A.3 AES shall be designed so that the key length may be increased

as needed.

A.4 AES shall be implementable in both hardware and software.

A.5 AES shall either be (a) freely available or (b) available

under terms consistent with the American National Standards Institute

(ANSI) patent policy.

A.6 Algorithms which meet the above requirements will be judged

based on the following factors:

(a) Security (i.e., the effort required to cryptanalyze),

(b) Computational efficiency,

(c) Memory requirements,

(d) Hardware and software suitability,

(e) Simplicity,

(f) Flexibility, and

(g) Licensing requirements.

Comments are being sought on these draft minimum acceptability

criteria and evaluation criteria, suggestions for other criteria, and

relative importance of each individual criterion in the evaluation

process. Criteria will be finalized by NIST following the criteria

workshop.

Proposed Draft Submission Requirements

In order to provide for an orderly, fair, and timely evaluation of

candidate algorithm proposals, submission requirements will specify the

procedures and supporting documentation necessary to submit a candidate

algorithm.

[[Page 94]]

B.1 A complete written specification of the algorithm including

all necessary mathematical equations, tables, and parameters needed to

implement the algorithm.

B.2 Software implementation and source code, in ANSI C code, which

will compile on a personal computer. This code will be used to compare

software performance and memory requirements with respect to other

algorithms.

B.3 Statement of estimated computational efficiency in hardware

and software.

B.4 Encryption example mapping a specified plaintext value into

ciphertext.

B.5 Statement of licensing requirements and patents which may be

infringed by implementations of this algorithm.

B.6 An analysis of the algorithm with respect to known attacks.

B.7 Statement of advantages and limitations of the submitted

algorithm.

(end of draft submission requirements)

Since both the evaluation criteria and submission requirements have

not yet been set, candidate algorithms should NOT be submitted at this

time.

Dated: December 16, 1996.

Samuel Kramer,

Associate Director.

[FR Doc. 96-32494 Filed 12-31-96; 8:45 am]

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