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NIST has traditionally published secure configuration guides for Apple operating systems, e.g., NIST SP 800-179. The macOS Security Compliance Project (mSCP) seeks to simplify the macOS security development cycle by reducing the amount of effort required to implement security baselines. This collaboration between federal organizations minimizes the duplicate effort that would be required to administer individual security baselines. Additionally, the secure baseline content provided is easily extensible by other parties to implement their own security requirements. The latest recommended...

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 Implementation Plan v1.0, which provided guidance to federal organizations to evolve their logical access control...

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 efficient fault detection than conventional methods. Multiple studies have shown fault detection equal to...

[Redirect to https://www.nccoe.nist.gov/automation-nist-cryptographic-module-validation-program] 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...

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 contains a methodology that can be used to develop training courses for a number of audiences which...

[Redirects to https://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/biometrics/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...

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 of Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Lengths, for additional information about the use of these block...

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 as for symmetric-key and public-key cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs and secure multi-party...

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 service models (Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud...

The Crypto Reading Club at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts diversified talks to foster cryptography research, collaboration, and dissemination. The series of talks, often by external experts, is organized as an activity of 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 meetings may scheduled for a bit longer (e.g.,...

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...

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 substantially different capabilities for responding to attacks, diagnosing causes, and handling sensitive...

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 objects. The CSOR currently contains objects for: Cryptographic Algorithms Information Object Security...

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 implementations. An algorithm implementation successfully tested by a lab and validated by NIST is added to an...

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 1,000 validated modules that are currently active, with over 5,000 modules validated since the...

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 provides insights for organizations to evaluate and manage their processes to minimize cyber supply...

[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 the Cybersecurity Framework; see the  for more information.

As an electronic analogue of a written signature, a digital signature provides assurance that: the claimed signatory signed the information, and  the information was not modified after signature generation. August 13, 2024 The Secretary of Commerce approved two Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) for post-quantum cryptographic digital signatures: FIPS 204, Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Standard FIPS 205, Stateless Hash-Based Digital Signature Standard These standards specify digital signature schemes that are designed to resist future attacks by quantum...

Elliptic curve cryptography is critical to the adoption of strong cryptography as we migrate to higher security strengths. NIST has standardized elliptic curve cryptography for digital signature algorithms in FIPS 186 and for key establishment schemes in SP 800-56A.  In FIPS 186-4, NIST recommends fifteen elliptic curves of varying security levels for use in these elliptic curve cryptographic standards. However, more than fifteen years have passed since these curves were first developed, and the community now knows more about the security of elliptic curve cryptography and practical...

Privacy Enhancing Lightweight Distributed Ledger Technology When is blockchain a problem for privacy?   Immutability can be a problem because private information stored in a blockchain cannot be deleted. Laws and regulations may require that users be allowed to remove private information at their request. Thus there is a need for redactable blockchain and redactable distributed ledger technology.  When is blockchain a problem for security?  Immutability can be a problem because security sensitive information stored in a blockchain cannot be deleted.  Security policies may require deleting...

Cryptography is critical for securing data at rest or in transit over the IoT. But cryptography fails when a device uses easy-to-guess (weak) keys generated from low-entropy random data. Standard deterministic computers have trouble producing good randomness, especially resource-constrained IoT-class devices that have little opportunity to collect local entropy before they begin network communications. The best sources of true randomness are based on unpredictable physical phenomena, such as quantum effects, but they can be impractical to include in IoT devices. We research novel Internet...

While FIPS 140-2 continues on through 2026, development to support and validate FIPS 140-3 modules must be in place by September 2020. This project addresses questions concerning the process of migrating from FIPS 140-2 to FIPS 140-3.  The transition process includes organizational, documentation and procedural changes necessary to update and efficiently manage the ever increasing list of security products that are tested for use in the US and Canadian governments.  Changes also support the migration of internally developed security standards towards a set of standards developed and maintained...

[Redirect to https://www.nist.gov/itl/applied-cybersecurity/fissea] FISSEA, founded in 1987, is an organization run by and for Federal government information security professionals to assist Federal agencies in strengthening their employee cybersecurity awareness and training programs. FISSEA conducts an annual fee-based conference.

THIS PAGE IS FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY SEE FIPS 140-3 TRANSITION EFFORT FOR THE CURRENT STATUS Approval of FIPS 140-3  |  SP 800-140x Development  |  Implementation Schedule  |  2015 RFI FIPS 140-3 approved On March 22, 2019, the Secretary of Commerce approved Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS) 140-3, Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules, which supersedes FIPS 140-2. This was announced in the Federal Register on May 1, 2019. FIPS 140-3 aligns with ISO/IEC 19790:2012(E) and includes modifications of the Annexes that are allowed to the Cryptographic...

Executive Order 13702 established the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) to maximize the benefits of high-performance computing (HPC) for economic competitiveness and scientific discovery. High-performance computing (HPC) systems, commonly known as Supercomputers, provide fundamental computing infrastructure to train AI/ML models, analyze big data, and perform complex simulations at high speeds. HPC is vital to the nation's vision for maintaining its global competitive edge. Securing high-performance computing systems is vital for safeguarding AI models, protecting sensitive data,...