Project : cascade

Section: Application Domains

Hash Functions

Since the previous section just ended on this topic, we start with it for the major problems to address within the next 5 years. A NIST competition on hash functions has just started (the call has been sent November 2nd, 2007, for submission before the end of 2008). In the first step, cryptographers had to build and analyze their own candidate; in a second step, cryptanalysts will be solicited, in order to analyze and break all the proposals. The conclusion is planned for 2012.

However, the main problem for hash functions is to identify the required security properties. Since they are used for many purposes, too many properties are often implicitly assumed, but not clearly stated, and clearly not satisfied. A lot of work has thus to be done one this topic of hash functions.