Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines

Users of the former "Crypto Toolkit" can now find that content under this project. It includes cryptographic primitives, algorithms and schemes are described in some of NIST's Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), Special Publications (SPs) and NIST Internal/Interagency Reports (NISTIRs).

Crypto Standards and Guidelines Activities

• Block Cipher Techniques
• Crypto Publications Review
• Digital Signatures
• Hash Functions
• Interoperable Randomness Beacons
• Key Management
• Lightweight Cryptography (LWC)
• Message Authentication Codes (MACs)
• Multi-Party Threshold Cryptography
• Post-quantum Cryptography (PQC)
• Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography (PEC)
• Random Bit Generation

Additional Cryptographic Research

• Circuit Complexity
• Elliptic Curve Cryptography
• Masked Circuits
• Pairing-Based Cryptography
• We also host a Crypto Reading Club.

For a high-level description (with examples) of our cryptographic standards activities, see these posters from the 2019 and 2020 ITL Science Day at NIST.

Implementation-related References

• Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP)
• Examples with Intermediate Values
• Object Identifiers (OIDs): Computer Security Objects Register (CSOR)
• PKI Testing

Guideline for Using Cryptography in the Federal Government

• Directives, mandates and policies (SP 800-175A)
• Cryptographic mechanisms (SP 800-175B Revision 1)
  

Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Development Process

Learn about NIST's process for developing crypto standards and guidelines in NISTIR 7977 and on the project homepage. NIST now also has a Crypto Publication Review Project for reviewing cryptographic publications that were published more than five years ago.

[link to Shu-jen's table]