Re: [Cfrg] [TLS] 3DES diediedie

[Derek Atkins <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

Joachim Strömbergson <[e-mail]> writes:

> Aloha!
>
> The point is that you _can_ run the highly standardized AES cipher and
> meet cost, power consumption and use case (including response times,
> performance) requirements on modern, low cost 32-bit MCUs even for
> highly constrained IoT solutions.
>
> Thus the need for smaller and cheaper ciphers that are less well known,
> less proven, not generally available in peers, hosts, servers are not
> needed.
>
> Yes, you can find solutions where ultra light ciphers are needed, but
> thanks to Moore's law those cases has rapidly diminished. More so than
> people in general seem to understand.

I'm afraid I have to disagree here.  What's it's done is pushed
yesterday's computation capabilities into smaller and smaller devices,
lower and lower on the food chain.  C.f. my previous email about a light
bulb.  Cost is definitely a concern, as well as power and performance.

So while yes, we can say "let's use an ARM Cortex Mx", that really
doesn't work in all cases.  So sure, we can wait yet another decade for
Moore's law to catch up with today's smart devices, but I suspect then
we'll have yet another class of even smaller devices.

> The implementation of the cipher is rarely the components that make or
> break the design. And in terms of development cost, deployment cost and
> the effort to convince buyers to trust something that is not AES, they
> all increase. Things you also need to account for at system design time.

True..  but it can certainly be a factor.

> Yours
> JoachimS

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       [e-mail]             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant