[Resource Topic] 2019/161: Understanding Optimizations and Measuring Performances of PBKDF2

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Title:
Understanding Optimizations and Measuring Performances of PBKDF2

Authors: Andrea Francesco Iuorio, Andrea Visconti

Abstract:

Password-based Key Derivation Functions (KDFs) are used to generate secure keys of arbitrary length implemented in many security-related systems. The strength of these KDFs is the ability to provide countermeasures against brute-force/dictionary attacks. One of the most implemented KDF is PBKDF2. In order to slow attackers down, PBKDF2 uses a salt and introduces computational intensive operations based on an iterated pseudo-random function. Since passwords are widely used to protect personal data and to authenticate users to access specific resources, if an application uses a small iteration count value, the strength of PBKDF2 against attacks performed on low-cost commodity hardware may be reduced. In this paper we introduce the cryptographic algorithms involved in the key derivation process, describing the optimization techniques used to speed up PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA1 in a GPU/CPU context. Finally, a testing activities has been executed on consumer-grade hardware and experimental results are reported.

ePrint: https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/161

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