As a part of the periodic review of NIST’s cryptographic standards
and guidelines, NIST’s Crypto Publication Review Board announced
the review of FIPS 198-1 The
Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) in August
2021. In response, NIST received public comments.
NIST proposes to convert FIPS 198-1 to a NIST Special Publication
(SP), and apply the following changes:
- Update the HMAC specification
to include block sizes for the SHA-3 family of hash functions - Include a discussion on
truncation - Improve the editorial quality
and update references
Conversion to an SP: NIST typically specifies
fundamental cryptographic primitives—block ciphers, digital signatures
algorithms, and hash functions—as FIPS publications, whereas other
cryptographic schemes—modes of operation, message authentication codes,
etc.—are published as a part of the NIST SP 800 series. (For more information,
see Section 3 of NISTIR 7977.)
To be consistent with that approach, NIST proposes to convert FIPS 198-1 to an
SP.
In particular, NIST proposes to develop a draft SP for the HMAC
specification, updated as described above, which would be released for public
comment. When the SP is finalized and published, FIPS 198-1 would be withdrawn
simultaneously.
Send comments on the decision proposal by October 20, 2022 to [email protected]
with “Comments on FIPS 198-1 decision proposal” in the subject
line.
Comments received in response to this request will be posted on the Crypto
Publication Review Project site after the due date. Submitters’
names and affiliations (when provided) will be included, while contact
information will be removed. See the project site for additional information
about the review process.