Analysis of the new standard hash function

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the security and implementation aspects of the new SHA-3 hash standard, focusing on Keccak's design, its Android implementation, and applications in the Internet of Things.

Contribution

It provides the first Android library for SHA-3 and discusses its security features and suitability for IoT applications.

Findings

Keccak was selected as the SHA-3 standard after a five-year process.

An Android implementation of SHA-3 is developed and made publicly available.

The paper discusses the potential of SHA-3 for IoT security applications.

Abstract

On 2$^{nd}$ October 2012 the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in the United States of America announced the new hashing algorithm which will be adopted as standard from now on. Among a total of 73 candidates, the winner was Keccak, designed by a group of cryptographers from Belgium and Italy. The public selection of a new standard of cryptographic hash function SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) took five years. Its object is to generate a hash a fixed size from a pattern with arbitrary length. The first selection on behalf of NIST on a standard of this family took place in 1993 when SHA-1 was chosen, which later on was replaced by SHA-2. This paper is focused on the analysis both from the point of view of security and the implementation of the Keccak function, which is the base of the new SHA-3 standard. In particular, an implementation in the mobile platform Android is presented here, providing the first known external library in this mobile operating system so that any developer could use the new standard hashing. Finally, the new standard in applications in the Internet of Things is analysed.