Date: Fri, 3 May 2013 10:04:20 +0200
From: Jean-Philippe Aumasson <jeanphilippe.aumasson@...il.com>
To: discussions@...sword-hashing.net
Subject: Technical FAQ draft

Hello,

I'd like to add more technical questions to the FAQ on
https://password-hashing.net/faq.html, to assist submitters in the
design of a password hash. Below is a first draft; what do you think
should be changed/added?

Thanks!

(a copy of the draft FAQ is also available on
https://password-hashing.net/techfaq.txt)


------------------------------------------------------------------------
- How do requirements differ for password storage and key derivation?

Password storage and key derivation are two classes of applications of
password hashing:
- Password storage is about verification of credentials for using a given
service (typically a web service, but also for unlocking a mobile phone,
logging in an OS, etc.).
- Key derivation is about generating a cryptographic key from a pasword,
typically to 'unlock' an encryption service (full-disk encryption, SSH
or PGP private keys, etc.).

Key derivation tolerates more costly hashing (both in time and memory)
because typical applications are run on a client, whereas the typical
application of password storage is a commercial web service hashing on a
remote server; a too long delay impairs user experience
and costs precious CPU time on the server which, like memory
consumption, may be exploited for DoS unless specific countermeasures
are implemented.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Why not hashing passwords on the client of a web service to eliminate
  the risk of DoS on the server?

If the server receives a hash rather than a password, a leak of the
hashes database allows to impersonate users without finding their
passwords (in the spirit of pass-the-hash attacks).


------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Why (not) requiring significant memory?

Requiring a significant amount of non-volatile memory (as in scrypt)
tends to decrease the cost-efficiency of massively parallel attacks on
GPUs and hardware (FPGA or ASIC), whereas general-purpose CPUs tend to
support fast-access RAM with several MB of CPU cache.

Nevertheless, on platforms such as mobile devices or smartcards,
significant memory requirements may impair performance and/or user
experience.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 'Memory' what?

Memory usage of a password hashing scheme can be characterized by
- The amount of storage required (for example, at least 4 mebibytes)
- The number of accesses ('reads') to the memory
- The number of modifications ('writes') to the memory
- The size of data blocks read and written
- The order of memory addresses accessed (for example, sequential: X,
  X+8, X+16, etc.)
- The predictability of memory addresses accessed (for example,
  sequentially-ordered accesses are predictable, whereas scrypt's ROMmix
  accesses are not)

All these characteristics affect the performance and thus security of
the scheme. An example of attack may thus consist in showing that
apparently-unpredictable memory accesses are partially predictable.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Why parallelism is often good for a password hashing algorithm?

Consider a server equiped with an 8-core CPU, having to choose between
two password hashing algorithms:

-- Algorithm A cannot be parallelized, and the server uses a single core
of its 8-core CPU to hash passwords (since using 2, 3, or more cores
would not speed-up hashing).

-- Algorithm B can be parallelized such that with 8 cores it is 8 times
as fast as with a single core. The defender (that is, the server) can
take advantage of this by using all 8 cores of its CPU to hash a
password as fast as algorithm A, but making much more computations.

Now consider an attacker: with N cores she evaluates N instances of
algorithm A in parallel, but only N/8 instances of algorithm B in the
same amount of time.

In practice it may not be wise to allocate all cores of a busy server to
password hashing. However for applications such as full-disk encryption
or protection of private keys on desktops it is generally okay to use
more than one core.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
- What is 'simplicity', and why is it good?

Simplicity of an algorithm refers to
- Simplicity of the specification: Clarity and conciseness, design
  symmetries (for example, iteration of an identical round function),
  reduced number of operations and components, prior knowledge required
  (for example, do we need to understand finite fields algebra?).
- Simplicity of implementation: Are the basic operation easily
  translated into machine instructions? (Example: 64-bit integer addition;
  counterexample: 128-bit finite-field multiplication.); Is an efficient
  implementation similar to the textbook description? (Counterexample:
  AES table-based implemetations.)

Simpler is better for a number of reasons:
- "the simplicity of a cipher contributes to the appeal it has for
  cryptanalysts, and in the absence of successful cryptanalysis, to its
  cryptographic credibility." (Daemen and Rijmen, in the AES book)
- "complexity provides both opportunity and hiding places for attackers"
  (Dan Geer)
- The simpler the algorithm, the cheaper it costs to implement, debug,
  and test.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
- It there a formal mathematical definition of the security of a
  password hashing scheme?

Attempts of formal definition of secure key-derivation scheme can be
found in
Yao, Yin; Design and Analysis of Password-Based Key Derivation
Functions; CT-RSA 2005
http://palms.ee.princeton.edu/PALMSopen/yao05design.pdf
Krawczyk; Cryptographic Extraction and Key Derivation: The HKDF
Scheme; CRYPTO 2010
https://gnunet.org/sites/default/files/264.pdf

These definitions can be summarized as 'the hash should behave randomly
with respect to any of its input'.  However these definitions only
partially address the actual security of a key derivation scheme (and of
a PHS more generally); they do not address the security informally
defined as 'the scheme should minimize the efficiency of attackers
working with GPUs and FPGAs'.

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