diff options
author | lloyd <[email protected]> | 2010-02-01 16:29:38 +0000 |
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committer | lloyd <[email protected]> | 2010-02-01 16:29:38 +0000 |
commit | 454e45b7c4fece11a7f43ffa412148b4a274c90f (patch) | |
tree | 5ae87c2104fba534548e59fa477d6a5f2f5a5e29 /doc/api.tex | |
parent | ae6a404ec14cc3c86a96cd3e5c67c9c23be38147 (diff) |
Modify the S2K interface. Instead of being stateful in terms of the salt
and iteration count, force it to be passed to each call to derive_key.
So remove current_salt, set_iterations, new_random_salt, and change_salt
functions from S2K interface.
Update examples and test application to match.
While I was in there, change the passhash example to use 64 bit salts
and 128 bit PBKDF2 outputs.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/api.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/api.tex | 81 |
1 files changed, 37 insertions, 44 deletions
diff --git a/doc/api.tex b/doc/api.tex index 556e76aa0..20177a9f8 100644 --- a/doc/api.tex +++ b/doc/api.tex @@ -2621,53 +2621,46 @@ degree of applicability. \subsection{S2K Algorithms} -There are various procedures (usually fairly ad-hoc) for turning a passphrase -into a (mostly) arbitrary length key for a symmetric cipher. A general -interface for such algorithms is presented in \filename{s2k.h}. The main -function is \function{derive\_key}, which takes a passphrase, and the desired -length of the output key, and returns a key of that length, deterministically -produced from the passphrase. If an algorithm can't produce a key of that size, -it will throw an exception (most notably, PKCS \#5's PBKDF1 can only produce -strings between 1 and $n$ bytes, where $n$ is the output size of the underlying -hash function). - -Most such algorithms allow the use of a ``salt'', which provides some extra -randomness and helps against dictionary attacks on the passphrase. Simply call -\function{change\_salt} (there are variations of it for most of the ways you -might wish to specify a salt, check the header for details) with a block of -random data. You can also have the class generate a new salt for you with -\function{new\_random\_salt}; the salt that was generated can be retrieved with -\function{current\_salt}. - -Additionally some algorithms allow you to set some sort of iteration -count, which will make the algorithm take longer to compute the final -key (reducing the speed of brute-force attacks of various kinds). This -can be changed with the \function{set\_iterations} function. Most -standards recommend an iteration count of at least 1000. Currently -defined S2K algorithms are ``PBKDF1(digest)'', ``PBKDF2(digest)'', and -``OpenPGP-S2K(digest)''; you can retrieve any of these using the -\function{get\_s2k}, found in \filename{lookup.h}. As of this writing, -``PBKDF2(SHA-256)'' with 10000 iterations and an 8 byte salt is -recommend for new applications. +There are various procedures (usually fairly ad-hoc) for turning a +passphrase into a (mostly) arbitrary length key for a symmetric +cipher. A general interface for such algorithms is presented in +\filename{s2k.h}. The main function is \function{derive\_key}, which +takes a passphrase, a salt, an iteration count, and the desired length +of the output key, and returns a key of that length, deterministically +produced from the passphrase and salt. If an algorithm can't produce a +key of that size, it will throw an exception (most notably, PKCS \#5's +PBKDF1 can only produce strings between 1 and $n$ bytes, where $n$ is +the output size of the underlying hash function). + +The purpose of the iteration count is to make the algorithm take +longer to compute the final key (reducing the speed of brute-force +attacks of various kinds). Most standards recommend an iteration count +of at least 10000. Currently defined S2K algorithms are +``PBKDF1(digest)'', ``PBKDF2(digest)'', and ``OpenPGP-S2K(digest)''; +you can retrieve any of these using the \function{get\_s2k}, found in +\filename{lookup.h}. As of this writing, ``PBKDF2(SHA-256)'' with +10000 iterations and a 16 byte salt is recommend for new applications. \subsubsection{OpenPGP S2K} -There are some oddities about OpenPGP's S2K algorithms that are documented -here. For one thing, it uses the iteration count in a strange manner; instead -of specifying how many times to iterate the hash, it tells how many -\emph{bytes} should be hashed in total (including the salt). So the exact -iteration count will depend on the size of the salt (which is fixed at 8 bytes -by the OpenPGP standard, though the implementation will allow any salt size) -and the size of the passphrase. - -To get what OpenPGP calls ``Simple S2K'', set iterations to 0 (the default for -OpenPGP S2K), and do not specify a salt. To get ``Salted S2K'', again leave the -iteration count at 0, but give an 8-byte salt. ``Salted and Iterated S2K'' -requires an 8-byte salt and some iteration count (this should be significantly -larger than the size of the longest passphrase that might reasonably be used; -somewhere from 1024 to 65536 would probably be about right). Using both a -reasonably sized salt and a large iteration count is highly recommended to -prevent password guessing attempts. +There are some oddities about OpenPGP's S2K algorithms that are +documented here. For one thing, it uses the iteration count in a +strange manner; instead of specifying how many times to iterate the +hash, it tells how many \emph{bytes} should be hashed in total +(including the salt). So the exact iteration count will depend on the +size of the salt (which is fixed at 8 bytes by the OpenPGP standard, +though the implementation will allow any salt size) and the size of +the passphrase. + +To get what OpenPGP calls ``Simple S2K'', set iterations to 0, and do +not specify a salt. To get ``Salted S2K'', again leave the iteration +count at 0, but give an 8-byte salt. ``Salted and Iterated S2K'' +requires an 8-byte salt and some iteration count (this should be +significantly larger than the size of the longest passphrase that +might reasonably be used; somewhere from 1024 to 65536 would probably +be about right). Using both a reasonably sized salt and a large +iteration count is highly recommended to prevent password guessing +attempts. \subsection{Checksums} |