cryptographic hash Algorithm Competition

NIST announced a public competition (Federal Register Notice) on Nov. 2, 2007 to develop a new cryptographic hash algorithm, which converts a variable length message into a short "message digest" that can be used in generating digital signatures, message authentication codes, and many other security applications in the information infrastructure. The competition was NIST's response to advances in the cryptanalysis of hash algorithms. The winning algorithm will be named "SHA-3", and will augment the hash algorithms currently specified in the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-3, Secure Hash Standard.

NIST received sixty-four entries by October 31, 2008; and selected fifty-one candidate algorithms to advance to the first round on December 10, 2008, and fourteen to advance to the second round on July 24, 2009. A year was allocated for the public review of the fourteen second-round candidates.

NIST received significant feedback from the cryptographic community. Based on the public feedback and internal reviews of the second-round candidates, NIST selected five SHA-3 finalists - BLAKE, Grøstl, JH, Keccak, and Skein to advance to the third (and final) round of the competition on December 9, 2010, which ended the second round of the competition.

Submitters of the finalist algorithms are allowed to make minor modifications to their algorithms and submit the final packages to NIST by January 16, 2011. A one-year public comment period is planned for the finalists. NIST also plans to host a final SHA-3 Candidate Conference in the spring of 2012 to discuss the public feedback on these candidates, and select the SHA-3 winner later in 2012.

Further details of the competition are available at the specific sites indicated in the menu on the left.