More on 128-bit vs. 256-bit security

Black_David at emc.com Black_David at emc.com
Sun Sep 16 16:38:02 PDT 2007


* From the T10 Reflector (t10 at t10.org), posted by:
* Black_David at emc.com
*
Between the 128-bit suite and the 256-bit suite in IKEv2-SCSI
(06-449), I think the 128-bit suite is the clear choice, because:
(1) I agree with Hugo Krawczyk that the 256-bit suite is overkill,
	and the NIST document that Larry Hofer has cited supports
	this view.  The overkill is quite dramatic, as the 256-bit
	suite contains the 521-bit elliptic curve, which is beyond
	even NSA's most stringent suite B requirements.
(2) I place little reliance on the NSA's guidance in the documents
	that Gideon has provided pointers to.  NSA is part of the US
	government security community that brought us Skipjack and
	DSA digital signatures, neither of which are in in widespread
	commercial usage.  The NSA determination not to use RSA and
	DH MODP key sizes larger than 1024 bits ("NSA has determined
	that beyond the 1024-bit public key cryptography in common
	use today, rather than increase key sizes beyond 1024-bits,
	a switch to elliptic curve technology is warranted.") looks
	like it's going to follow in this fine tradition of commercial
	failure.  We are likely to eventually need elliptic curve to
	deal with RSA and DH MODP scaling issues, but 1024 bits is
	*not* the inflection point.
	But wait, it gets better, because NSA hasn't even convinced
	the entire US government to sign up for their view.  Not only
	is NIST not convinced (there are RSA and DH MODP key sizes
	larger than 1024 bits in the document Larry cited), but there
	is even disagreement within the US Department of Defense
	itself.  For example, the current draft of the DISA IPv6
	profile for the DoD:
(http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/adv_ip/register/docs/disr_ipv6_product_profile
_v2.pdf)
	requires RFC 4307, and in turn RFC 4307 recommends 2048 bit
	MODP Diffie-Hellman as the successor to 1024 bit MODP DH.
(3) The intellectual property situation around elliptic curve is a
	problem.  I join Kevin in stating that "we cannot support as
	mandatory, items that fall under the IP of companies that do
	not make a RAND statement to T10 related to that IP."  I
	believe Gideon has known for months that obtaining such a
	statement would require something like his company approaching
	the patent holder; if anything has happened, he should say so.
	In any case, T10 does not currently have a RAND statement
	for this technology, and assuming that one will appear is
	(IMHO) seriously optimistic.
As indicated in my previous email "Single suite requirement?", I'd
be prepared to remove the 256-bit suite from 06-449 and instead ask
for a vote on whether the 128-bit suite should be mandatory or not.
If the 256-bit suite remains, one way to look at the choice between
it and the 128-bit suite is to decide whether to follow the approach
of the NSA and the related poor track record of the US government
on commercial security technology, or the approach of Hugo Krawczyk,
RSA and the IETF security community that has developed security
technology that is in widespread commercial use around the world
(e.g., TLS, IPsec).  I think that choice is obvious, but then I
regard myself as part of the IETF security community.
Thanks,
--David
> * From the T10 Reflector (t10 at t10.org), posted by:
> * Black_David at emc.com
> *
> I asked some RSA colleagues to look at the 128-bit and 256-bit
> suites.  They noted that the P-521 elliptic curve (521 bits)
> may be excessive for the 256-bit suite.  For example, the
> largest elliptic curve required by NSA suite B is the 384 bit
> curve:
> 
> http://www.nsa.gov/ia/industry/crypto_suite_b.cfm
> 
> Thanks,
> --David
----------------------------------------------------
David L. Black, Senior Technologist
EMC Corporation, 176 South St., Hopkinton, MA  01748
+1 (508) 293-7953	      FAX: +1 (508) 293-7786
black_david at emc.com	   Mobile: +1 (978) 394-7754
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