SHA-3 Finalist Candidates Known

Skuto writes "NIST just announced the final selection of algorithms in the SHA-3 hash competition. The algorithms that are candidates to replace SHA-2 are BLAKE, Grøstl, JH, Keccak and Skein. The selection criteria included performance in software and hardware, hardware implementation size, best known attacks and being different enough from the other candidates. Curiously, some of the faster algorithms were eliminated as they were felt to be 'too fast to be true.' A full report with the (non-)selection rationale for each candidate is forthcoming."

Comments

"Too fast to be true"

[MrEricSir]

Well that's mathematically sound reasoning!

Re:"Too fast to be true"

[icebike]

Exactly my reaction.

Is this a beauty contest or what?

There may be some tendency to think that something that hashes too quickly would be trivial, but without even a glance at the methodology and a modicum of trials this is just like assuming the cute girl is an air-head without so much as a conversation.

Who are these guys anyway? You expect better from NIST.

Re:"Too fast to be true"

[Omnifarious]

Tangential? What are you talking about? The cryptographic uses of hashes are the whole reason SHA-1, SHA-2 224,256,384,512 were created in the first place. It's also the reason the competition is being run.

I would also submit that your use case is not as security insensitive as you might think.