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Projects

Showing 1 through 25 of 103 matching records.
Access Control Policy and Implementation Guides ACP&IG
ARCHIVED PROJECT: This project is no longer being supported and will be removed from this website on June 30, 2025. Adequate security of information and information systems is a fundamental management responsibility. Nearly all applications that deal with financial, privacy, safety, or defense include some form of access (authorization) control. Access control is concerned with determining the allowed activities of legitimate users, mediating every attempt by a user to access a resource in...
Access Control Policy Testing ACPT
ARCHIVED PROJECT: This project is no longer being supported and will be removed from this website on June 30, 2025.   Access control systems are among the most critical security components. Faulty policies, misconfigurations, or flaws in software implementation can result in serious vulnerabilities. The specification of access control policies is often a challenging problem. Often a system’s privacy and security are compromised due to the misconfiguration of access control policies instead...
Attribute Based Access Control ABAC
The concept of Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) has existed for many years. It represents a point on the spectrum of logical access control from simple access control lists to more capable role-based access, and finally to a highly flexible method for providing access based on the evaluation of attributes. In November 2009, the Federal Chief Information Officers Council (Federal CIO Council) published the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) Roadmap and...
Automated Cryptographic Validation Testing ACVT
The Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP) and the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) were established on July 17, 1995 by NIST to validate cryptographic modules conforming to the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-1, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules, and other FIPS cryptography based standards. FIPS 140-2 was released on May 25, 2001 and supersedes FIPS 140-1. The current implementation of the CMVP is shown in Figure 1 below. The CAVP is a...
Automotive Cybersecurity Community of Interest (COI)
The automotive industry is facing significant challenges from increased cybersecurity risk and adoption of AI and opportunities from rapid technological innovations. NIST is setting up this community of interest (COI) to allow the industry, academia, and government to discuss, comment, and provide input on the potential work that NIST is doing which will affect the automotive industry. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Cryptography Cryptographic agility Migration to...
Awareness, Training, & Education ATE
Public Law 100-235, "The Computer Security Act of 1987," mandated NIST and OPM to create guidelines on computer security awareness and training based on functional organizational roles. Guidelines were produced in the form of NIST Special Publication 800-16 titled, "Information Technology Security Training Requirements: A Role- and Performance-Based Model." The learning continuum modeled in this guideline provides the relationship between awareness, training, and education. The publication also...
Biometric Conformance Test Software BioCTS
The Computer Security Division (CSD) supports the development of national and international biometric standards and promotes conformity assessment through:  Participation in the development of biometric standards Sponsorship of conformance testing methodology standard projects Development of associated conformance test architectures and test suites Leadership in national (link is external) and international (link is external) standards development bodies Visit the Biometric Conformance...
Block Cipher Techniques
Approved Algorithms Currently, there are two (2) Approved* block cipher algorithms that can be used for both applying cryptographic protection (e.g., encryption) and removing or verifying the protection that was previously applied (e.g., decryption): AES and Triple DES. Two (2) other block cipher algorithms were previously approved: DES and Skipjack; however, their approval has been withdrawn. See the discussions below for further information; also see SP 800-131A Rev. 2, Transitioning the Use...
Bugs Framework BF
[Redirect to:  https://usnistgov.github.io/BF/] The Bugs Framework (BF) is a structured causal classification of security bugs and related faults, featuring a formal language for unambiguous specification of security weaknesses and underlined by them vulnerabilities. It organizes bugs by the operations of orthogonal software or hardware execution phases, faults -- by their input operands, and errors -- by their output results. An error either propagates to a fault or is a final error introducing...
Circuit Complexity
The circuit complexity project, part of the Cryptographic Technology Group, operates within the Computer Security Division, in the Information Technology Laboratory at NIST. The project is focused on researching circuit complexity, and developing reference material about circuits. Motivation and goals Circuit complexity is a topic of great relevance to cryptography. Optimization of circuits leads to efficiency improvement in a wide range of algorithms and protocols, such...
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics (On-demand self-service, Broad network access, Resource pooling, Rapid elasticity, Measured Service); three...
Combinatorial Methods for Trust and Assurance ACTS
Combinatorial methods reduce costs for testing, and have important applications in software engineering:   Combinatorial or t-way testing is a proven method for better testing at lower cost. The key insight underlying its effectiveness resulted from a series of studies by NIST from 1999 to 2004. NIST research showed that most software bugs and failures are caused by one or two parameters, with progressively fewer by three or more, which means that combinatorial testing can provide more...
Combinatorial Testing for AI-Enabled Systems CT4AIES
*NEW*  Short course from the Defense and Aerospace Test and Analysis Workshop 2025 (Dataworks 2025) - complete course presentation here. The goal of this project is to provide practitioners and researchers with a foundational understanding of combinatorial testing techniques and applications to testing AI-enabled software systems (AIES).   Resources are being developed in these areas: Combinatorial testing (CT),  applying CT to test traditional software systems, including real-world...
Computer Security Objects Register CSOR
Information objects that convey information used to maintain the security of resources in computerized environments are known as Computer Security Objects (CSOs). The Computer Security Objects Register (CSOR) specifies names that uniquely identify CSOs. These unique names are used to reference these objects in abstract specifications and during the negotiation of security services for a transaction or application. The CSOR is also a repository of parameters associated with the registered...
Crypto Agility
Advances in computing capabilities, cryptographic research, and cryptanalytic techniques periodically create the need to replace algorithms that no longer provide adequate security for their use cases. For example, the threats posed by future cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) to public-key cryptography is addressed by NIST post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards.  Migrating to PQC in protocols, applications, software, hardware, and infrastructures presents an opportunity to...
Crypto Publication Review Project
This project summarizes NIST’s current and planned activities for reviewing its cryptography standards and other publications. The Crypto Publication Review Board (“the Board”) within the Computer Security Division identifies a publication for review based on its original publishing date and any relevant issues raised since it was published. The targeted review period for each publication is every five years. The Board welcomes public comments on the publications under review and will consider...
Crypto Reading Club
The Crypto Reading Club at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts diversified talks to foster cryptography research, collaboration, and dissemination. The meetings are organized by the NIST Cryptographic Technology Group (CTG), within the Computer Security Division (CSD), Information Technology Laboratory (ITL). When, Where, Contact Feature Description When Wednesday, once every two weeks, 10:00am-11:00am (Eastern Time). Some...
Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program CAVP
The NIST Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP) provides validation testing of Approved (i.e., FIPS-approved and NIST-recommended) cryptographic algorithms and their individual components. Cryptographic algorithm validation is a prerequisite of cryptographic module validation. The list of FIPS-approved algorithms can be found in SP 800-140C and SP 800-140D.  Vendors may use any of the NVLAP-accredited Cryptographic and Security Testing (CST) Laboratories to test algorithm...
Cryptographic Module Validation Program CMVP
Welcome to the CMVP The Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) is a joint effort between the National Institute of Standards and Technology under the Department of Commerce and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, a branch of the Communications Security Establishment. The goal of the CMVP is to promote the use of validated cryptographic modules and provide Federal agencies with a security metric to use in procuring equipment containing validated cryptographic modules. CMVP has over...
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...
Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Development Process
In 2021, the Computer Security Division launched the Crypto Publication Review Project to identify publications for review based on their original publishing date and any relevant issues raised since then. Please visit the project page to view current publications under review and completed reviews. Background In 2013, news reports about leaked classified documents caused concern from the cryptographic community about the security of NIST cryptographic standards and guidelines. NIST is also...
Cyber Threat Information Sharing CTIS
The Computer Security Division is working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop guidance on Computer Security Incident Coordination (CSIC). The goal of CSIC is to help diverse collections of organizations to effectively collaborate in the handling of computer security incidents. Effective collaboration raises numerous issues on how and when to share information between organizations, and in what form information should be shared. Because different organizations may have...
Cybersecurity and Privacy Reference Tool CPRT
 Want to build your own cybersecurity guidance? This tool provides a simple way to access reference data from various NIST cybersecurity and privacy standards, guidelines, and Frameworks– downloadable in common formats (XLSX and JSON).    Other News & Info   Program News Get the scoop on what’s been happening with the CPRT program. More Contact Us Reach out via email with questions, ideas, or thoughts. Email  
Cybersecurity Framework CSF
[Redirect to https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework] The Cybersecurity Framework is voluntary guidance, based on existing standards, guidelines, and practices, for critical infrastructure organizations to better manage and reduce cybersecurity risk. In addition to helping organizations manage and reduce risks, it was designed to foster risk and cybersecurity management communications amongst both internal and external organizational stakeholders. *Federal agencies do have requirements to implement...
Cybersecurity Risk Analytics CRA
The Cyber Risk Analytics and Measurement program aims to develop cybersecurity risk analytics methods, tools, and guides to improve the understanding of cybersecurity risks, inform management practices, and facilitate information sharing among risk owners.  Below are the internal and external collaborative activities of the program: Cyber Supply Chain Survey Tool NIST is prototyping a survey tool be an educational resource to facilitate cybersecurity supply chain risk management. The tool...

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