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Re: [openpgp] New fingerprint: which hash algo

"Robert J. Hansen" <rjh@sixdemonbag.org> Fri, 09 October 2015 17:14 UTC

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From: "Robert J. Hansen" <rjh@sixdemonbag.org>
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Subject: Re: [openpgp] New fingerprint: which hash algo
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> Yep, and IMHO picking a hash function with a different inner structure
> from SHA-1, and designed to address the issue coming with it, such as
> SHA-3 may quite be a good idea.

I feel like a churl for observing this, but the history of
Merkle-Damgård hashes is really not very good.  MD4, MD5, SHA-0, SHA-1,
RIPEMD, and probably RIPEMD-160 and/or RIPEMD-128.

Some of this is because these are popular hash functions and as a result
have received the most cryptanalysis.  But part of me wonders if now
would not be an excellent time to introduce a non-Merkle-Damgård hash to
OpenPGP, in the hopes that maybe it will fare better.

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