Re: [openpgp] New fingerprint: which hash algo (was: to v5 or not to v5)

Werner Koch <wk@gnupg.org> Wed, 30 September 2015 06:21 UTC

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From: Werner Koch <wk@gnupg.org>
To: Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org>
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In-Reply-To: <87io742kz7.fsf@latte.josefsson.org> (Simon Josefsson's message of "Mon, 21 Sep 2015 11:13:48 +0200")
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Subject: Re: [openpgp] New fingerprint: which hash algo (was: to v5 or not to v5)
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On Mon, 21 Sep 2015 11:13, simon@josefsson.org said:

> Regarding which hash to use, SHA-256 is probably the simplest choice
> From a practicallity and consensus point of view.  Are there any strong
> reasons to favor something else?

I see also several reasons to favor SHA-256:

 - SHA-2 has shown no weaknesses during the SHA-3 competition.

 - SHA-256 is the commonly used hash algorithm for OpenPGP messages and
   keys and thus available in all code bases.

 - Although not an issue for fingerprints, SHA-3 is slower than SHA-2.

 - On embedded systems SHA-512 has a substantially performance penalty
   over SHA-256.

Given that modern ECC requires a larger than 256 bit hash, I am not sure
whether the next point is valid:

 - If we would go for a newer hash algorithm, all implementations would
   need to support SHA-256 (and SHA-1) anyway to support existing keys
   and allow verification of existing signatures.  Also decryption of
   symmetrically encrypted messages may require SHA-256 for the S2K.


Shalom-Salam,

   Werner

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