[openssl-dev] [openssl.org #3897] request: add BLAKE2 hash function (let's kill md5sum!)

[Yoav Nir via RT]

> On Jun 8, 2015, at 1:37 PM, Hubert Kario via RT <rt at openssl.org> wrote:
> 
> On Friday 05 June 2015 16:39:36 Zooko Wilcox-OHearn via RT wrote:
>> Dear OpenSSL folks:
>> 
>> I'm one of the authors of the BLAKE2 hash function
>> (https://blake2.net). I've been working with the maintainers of GNU
>> coreutils to make a tool named "b2sum", which I hope will eventually
>> replace md5sum.
>> 
>> md5sum is the most widely-used tool in the world for data integrity
>> but, as you know, MD5 is weak in ways that could endanger the users of
>> md5sum, depending on how they use it. I want to see md5sum phased out
>> entirely in our lifetimes!
>> 
>> BLAKE2 is a secure hash function, while being faster than MD5 (at
>> least on 64-bit CPUs). BLAKE2 is being used in new software projects
>> (https://blake2.net/#us) and there is recently an Internet Draft to
>> specify it
>> (https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-saarinen-blake2/?include_text=1).
>> 
>> One of the coreutils maintainers suggested that we should ask OpenSSL
>> to add BLAKE2, because coreutils itself will probably just use a
>> portable C implementation, but it would use an optimized
>> implementation if openssl provided it. Here's that thread:
>> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2015-06/msg00011.html
>> 
>> We, the BLAKE2 maintainers, offer both reference C code and optimized
>> implementations: https://blake2.net/#dl . There are also other
>> implementations with various virtues available: https://blake2.net/#sw
>> 
>> Here's my blog post extolling the virtues of BLAKE2 as a
>> high-performance hash function:
>> 
>> https://leastauthority.com/blog/BLAKE2-harder-better-faster-stronger-than-MD
>> 5.html
>> 
> 
> how resistant is it against side channel attacks?

Since it’s based on ChaCha, it’s very resistant to timing (and power) based side channel leakage.

Yoav