Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:18:17 +0200
From: Dmitry Khovratovich <khovratovich@...il.com>
To: "discussions@...sword-hashing.net" <discussions@...sword-hashing.net>
Cc: Alex Biryukov - UNI <alex.biryukov@....lu>, Daniel Dinu <dumitru-daniel.dinu@....lu>
Subject: Argon2

Dear all,

Our team would like to present Argon2,  which summarizes the state of
the art in the design of memory-hard functions.

Argon2 is a streamlined and simple design. It aims at the highest
memory filling rate, which is on par with the fastest PHC candidates
(close to 0.6 cycles per byte per pass on a 1.8 GHz CPU), while still
providing good defense against tradeoff attacks.

Argon2 effectively uses multiple computing units. We designed a
special permutation-based mode of operation to parallelize the
computation of Argon2 and still resist tradeoff attacks (sequential
computation, like in scrypt, is no longer possible/beneficial).

The internal cryptographic permutation (part of the block-generating
compression function) was optimized for simplicity (two Blake2b rounds
on a larger state) and resistance to tradeoff attacks (it can not be
computed iteratively and memoryless).

We tried to pre-fix as many parameters as possible so that the users
get fast and secure design out of the box with no need for special
tuning. Those who now what they are doing, certainly can adjust the
design to their own needs (choose another permutation, block size,
etc.).

Cryptographers can be interested in the new 8192-bit permutation we
designed, a security proof for the parallel mode of operation, and an
extension to Blake2 that enables arbitrary length outputs.

Argon2 has two variants: Argon2d and Argon2i. Argon2d is faster and
uses data-depending memory access, which makes it suitable for
cryptocurrencies and applications with no threats from side-channel
timing attacks. Argon2i uses data-independent memory access, which is
preferred for password hashing and password-based key derivation.
Argon2i is slower as it makes more passes over the memory to protect
from tradeoff attacks (3 passes by default comparing to 1 default pass
in Argon2d).

Both Argon2d and Argon2i can be tested in PHC benchmarking frameworks,
as the standard PHC API is provided. To benchmark either of them on
your own machine, run a makefile in a
corresponding "opt-sse" folder and run the executable with option "-benchmark".

Webpage: https://www.cryptolux.org/index.php/Argon2
Specification: https://www.cryptolux.org/images/0/0d/Argon2.pdf
Implementation: https://github.com/khovratovich/Argon2

Comments are welcome.

-- 
Best regards,
Dmitry Khovratovich

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