SHA-1 – one of the Internet's widely adopted
cryptographic hash function – is Just about to Die.
Yes, the cost and time required to break the
SHA1 algorithm have fallen much faster than previously expected.
According to a team of researchers, SHA-1 is so
weak that it may be broken and compromised by hackers in the next three months.
The SHA-1 algorithm was designed in 1995 by
the National Security Agency (NSA) as a part of the Digital Signature Algorithm. Like
other hash functions, SHA-1 converts any input message to a long string of
numbers and letters that serve as a cryptographic fingerprint for that message.
Like fingerprints, the resulting hashes are
useful as long as they are unique. If two different message inputs generate the
same hash (also known as a collision), it can open doors for real-world hackers to break into the
security of banking transactions, software downloads, or any website communication.
Collision Attacks on
SHA-1
Researchers from the Centrum Wiskunde &
Informatica in the Netherlands, Inria in France, and Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore have published a paper that showed that SHA-1 is vulnerable to the
same collision attacks, which they dubbed – Freestart Collision.
Collision attacks appear when the same hash value
(fingerprint) is produced for two different messages, which then can be
exploited to forge digital signatures, allowing attackers to break
communications encoded with SHA-1.
Breaking SHA1 Now Costs
between $75,000 and $120,000
Back in 2012, the well-known security
researcher, Bruce Schneier estimated that it would cost $700,000 to carry out a
collision attack on SHA1 by 2015 and just $173,000 by 2018.
However, based on new research, such attacks
could be performed this year for $75,000 to $120,000 – thanks to a new
graphics-card technique known as "boomeranging" that finds SHA1 collisions.
"Our
new GPU-based projections are now more accurate, and they are significant below
Schneier’s estimations," the research paper reads. "More
worrying, they are theoretically already within Schneier estimated resources of
criminal syndicates as of today, almost 2 years earlier than previously
expected and 1 year before SHA-1 being marked as unsafe."
Move to SHA-2 or SHA-3
Before it Gets TOO Late
The published findings are theoretical and will
not cause any immediate danger, but we strongly encourage administrators to
migrate from SHA-1 to the secure SHA-2 or SHA-3 hash algorithms as soon as possible.
Administrators should consider the impact SHA-1
would have to their organization and plan for:
·
Hardware compatible with SHA-2/SHA-3
·
Server software updates supporting SHA-2/SHA-3
·
Client software support for SHA-2/SHA-3
·
Custom application code support for SHA-2/SHA-3
SHA-2 is developed by the NSA, whereas SHA-3 is
developed by a group of independent researchers.
Reference: http://thehackernews.com/
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