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The Interoperable Randomness Beacons project at NIST intends to promote the availability of trusted public randomness as a public utility. This can be used for example for auditability and transparency of services that depend on randomized processes. The project is spearheaded by the Cryptographic Technology Group in the Computer Security Division of the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), and has counted with the participation of many collaborators over the years. WARNING: Do NOT use Beacon generated values as cryptographic secret keys! Randomness pulses from the NIST Randomness...

The Open Security Controls Assessment Language (OSCAL) is a NIST-led initiative created in partnership with industry to improve and automate security and compliance workflows. It introduces open, machine-readable formats in XML, JSON, and YAML that simplify control-based risk assessments and compliance activities. Through automation, OSCAL can reduce audit timelines from months to just minutes, decrease the likelihood of human error, and help organizations adapt more quickly to the changing regulatory requirements. OSCAL also supports hardware security by enabling machine-readable...

[Redirect to https://www.nist.gov/privacy-framework] The NIST Privacy Framework is a voluntary tool developed in collaboration with stakeholders intended to help organizations identify and manage privacy risk to build innovative products and services while protecting individuals’ privacy.

The Federal Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Forum is an informal group sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to promote the sharing of cybersecurity and privacy knowledge, best practices, and resources among U.S. federal, state, and local government, and at higher education organizations handling federal information.  The Federal Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Forum ("the Forum") maintains an extensive email list, and holds virtual events to discuss current issues and items of interest to those responsible for protecting non-national security...

Approved Algorithms   |  SHA-3 Derived Functions  |  Security Strengths  |  Testing Implementations Approved Algorithms A hash algorithm is used to map a message of arbitrary length to a fixed-length message digest. Approved hash algorithms for generating a condensed representation of a message (message digest) are specified in two Federal Information Processing Standards: FIPS 180-4, Secure Hash Standard and FIPS 202, SHA-3 Standard: Permutation-Based Hash and Extendable-Output Functions. FIPS 180-4 specifies seven hash algorithms: SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm-1), and the SHA-2...

Publications that discuss the generation, establishment, storage, use and destruction of the keys used NIST’s cryptographic algorithms Project Areas: Key Management Guidelines Key Establishment Cryptographic Key Management Systems Generally-speaking, there are two types of key establishment techniques: 1) techniques based on asymmetric (public key) algorithms, and 2) techniques based on symmetric (secret key) algorithms. However, hybrid techniques are also commonly used, whereby public key techniques are used to establish symmetric (secret) key encryption keys, which are then used to...

NIST began investigating cryptography for constrained environments in 2013. After two workshops and discussions with stakeholders in industry, government, and academia, NIST initiated a process to solicit, evaluate, and standardize schemes providing authenticated encryption with associated data (AEAD) and optional hashing functionalities for constrained environments where the performance of current NIST cryptographic standards is not acceptable.  On August 13, 2025, SP 800-232, Ascon-Based Lightweight Cryptography Standards for Constrained Devices: Authenticated Encryption, Hash, and...

Enterprise networks have become essential to the operation of companies, laboratories, universities, and government agencies. As they continue to grow both in size and complexity, their security has become a critical concern. Vulnerabilities are regularly discovered in software applications which are exploited to stage cyber attacks. There is no objective way to measure the security of an enterprise network. As a result it is difficult to answer such objective questions as "are we more secure than yesterday" or "how should we invest our limited resources to improve security" or "how does this...

The message authentication code (MAC) is generated from an associated message as a method for assuring the integrity of the message and the authenticity of the source of the message.  A secret key to the generation algorithm must be established between the originator of the message and its intended receiver(s). Approved Algorithms Currently, there are three approved* general-purpose MAC algorithms:  HMAC, KMAC, and CMAC. Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) The initial public draft of NIST SP 800-224, Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC): Specification of HMAC...

NIST maintains the National Checklist Repository, which is a publicly available resource that contains information on a variety of security configuration checklists for specific IT products or categories of IT products. A security configuration checklist (also called a lockdown, hardening guide, or benchmark) is a series of instructions or procedures for configuring an IT product to a particular operational environment, for verifying that the product has been configured properly, and/or for identifying unauthorized changes to the product. The IT product may be commercial, open source,...

Recently, what are known as “pairings” on elliptic curves have been a very active area of research in cryptography. A pairing is a function that maps a pair of points on an elliptic curve into a finite field. Their unique properties have enabled many new cryptographic protocols that had not previously been feasible. In particular, identity-based encryption (IBE) is a pairing-based scheme that has received considerable attention. IBE uses some form of a person (or entity’s) identification to generate a public key. This could be an email address, for instance. An IBE scheme allows a sender to...

Short URL:  https://www.nist.gov/pqcrypto For a plain-language introduction to post-quantum cryptography, see What Is Post-Quantum Cryptography?   PQC Standards  |  Migration to PQC  |  Ongoing PQC Standardization Process NIST’s Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) project leads the national and global effort to secure electronic information against the future threat of quantum computers—machines that may be years or decades away but could eventually break many of today’s widely used cryptographic systems. Through a multi-year international competition involving industry, academia, and...

The PEC project in the Cryptographic Technology Group (CTG), Computer Security Division (CSD), Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), at NIST accompanies the progress of emerging technologies in the area of privacy-enhancing cryptography (PEC).  Upcoming PEC-related events: TCPT3 (2026-Sep-29–30, possibly extensible to October): Threshold Call Preview Talks #3 WPEC 2026 (2026-Oct-26–29): NIST Workshop on Privacy-Enhancing Cryptography  Latest events with available reference material: MPTS 2026 (2026-Jan-26–29): Talks on MPC, FHE, ZKP. [Slides] STPPA #8 (2025-Sep-18): Talks on...

[Redirect to https://nvd.nist.gov] The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is the U.S. Government repository of standards-based vulnerability management data represented using the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP). This data enables automation of vulnerability management, security measurement, and compliance. NVD includes databases of security checklists, security related software flaws, misconfigurations, product names, and impact metrics.  

ARCHIVED PROJECT: This project is no longer being supported. The content is no longer being updated, and the information may be outdated.   The Program Review for Information Security Assistance (PRISMA) project was last updated in 2007; NIST Interagency Report (IR) 7358 and the corresponding PRISMA tool continue to serve as useful resources for high-level guidance and as a general framework, but may not be fully consistent with changes to requirements, standards and guidelines for securing systems. The Program Review for Information Security Management Assistance (PRISMA) includes...

Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in nonfederal systems and organizations is critical to federal agencies. The suite of guidance (NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-171, SP 800-171A, SP 800-172, and SP 800-172A) focuses on protecting the confidentiality of CUI and recommends specific security requirements to achieve that objective. Recent Updates May 13, 2026: NIST issues SP 800-172r3, Enhanced Security Requirements for Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information, and SP 800-172Ar3, Assessing Enhanced Security Requirements for Controlled Unclassified...

Recent Updates June 30, 2026: NIST SP 800-18r2 (Revision 2), Developing Security, Privacy, and Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management Plans for Systems, has been finalized and is now available. This revision broadens the scope of system planning, aligns plan development with the RMF steps and tasks, and emphasizes the use of machine-readable data formats for automated data collection to support risk management decisions throughout the system life cycle. August 27, 2025: In response to Executive Order 14306, NIST SP 800-53 Release 5.2.0 has been finalized and is now available on...

This FISMA Implementation Project link will automatically redirect you to FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA)) background information under the NIST Risk Management Framework project.

ARCHIVED PROJECT: This project is no longer being supported. The content is no longer being updated, and the information may be outdated.   One of the most challenging problems in managing large networks is the complexity of security administration. Role based access control (RBAC) (also called "role based security"), as formalized in 1992 by David Ferraiolo and Rick Kuhn, has become the predominant model for advanced access control because it reduces this cost.   This project site explains RBAC concepts, costs and benefits, the economic impact of RBAC, design and implementation issues,...

Modern computing devices consist of various hardware, firmware, and software components at multiple layers of abstraction. Many security and protection mechanisms are currently rooted in software that, along with all underlying components, must be trustworthy. A vulnerability in any of those components could compromise the trustworthiness of the security mechanisms that rely upon those components. Stronger security assurances may be possible by grounding security mechanisms in roots of trust. Roots of trust are highly reliable hardware, firmware, and software components that perform specific,...

In January 1988, Congress enacted the Computer Security Act of 1987 (Public Law 100-235). A provision of that law called for the establishment of the Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board (CSSPAB) within the Department of Commerce. In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, 5 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq, the Board was chartered in May 1988. In December 2002, Public Law 107-347, The E-Government Act of 2002, Title III, the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002, Section 21 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 278g-4)...

Mobile Forensics There is a critical need in the law enforcement community to ensure the reliability of mobile forensic tools. The Computer Forensic Tool Testing (CFTT) project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) establishes methodologies for testing computer forensic software tools by development of general tool specifications, test procedures, test criteria, test sets, and test hardware. The results provide the information necessary for toolmakers to improve tools, for users to make informed choices about acquiring and using computer forensics tools, and for...

[Redirect to https://www.nist.gov/nice] The mission of NICE is to energize and promote a robust network and an ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. NICE fulfills this mission by coordinating with government, academic, and industry partners to build on existing successful programs, facilitate change and innovation, and bring leadership and vision to increase the number of skilled cybersecurity professionals helping to keep our Nation secure.

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 deeply concerned by these reports, some of which have questioned the integrity of the NIST standards...

NIST has established the NIST Personal Identity Verification Validation Program (NPIVP) to validate Personal Identity Verification (PIV) components required by Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201. The objectives of the NPIVP program are: to validate the compliance/conformance of PIV card applications with the specifications in NIST SP 800-73; and to provides the assurance that PIV card applications that have been validated by NPIVP are interoperable. All of the tests under NPIVP are handled by third-party test facilities that are accredited under the Cryptographic and...