Third-Round Report of the SHA-3 Cryptographic Hash Algorithm Competition

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) opened a public competition on November 2, 2007, to develop a new cryptographic hash algorithm – SHA-3, which will augment the hash algorithms specified in the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-4, Secure Hash Standard (SHS). The competition was NIST’s response to advances in the cryptanalysis of hash algorithms. NIST received sixty-four submissions in October 2008, and selected fifty-one first-round candidates on December 10, 2008; fourteen second-round candidates on July 24, 2009; and five third-round candidates – BLAKE, Grøstl, JH, Keccak and Skein, on December 9, 2010, to advance to the final round of the competition. Eighteen months were provided for the public review of the finalists, and on October 2, 2012, NIST announced the winning algorithm of the SHA-3 competition – Keccak. This report summarizes the evaluation of the five finalists and the selection of the SHA-3 winner.