The Open Source Community OpenSSL Project Adopts the Next Generation International Standard Cipher 'Camellia', Developed in Japan

JCN Newswires, Nov 8, 2006

64-bit block ciphers (64-bit long blocks) such as Triple DES and MISTY1 were constructed by the mid 1990's. And 128-bit block ciphers such as Camellia and AES were produced in and after the second half of the 1990's.

2) SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer /Transport Layer Security)

The Netscape Communications Corporation developed the SSL protocol, which provides a secure communications mechanism by encrypting transmitted data for Internet communications. The next version of SSL3.0 was renamed as TLS and was standardized by the IETF.

Since SSL/TLS is normally equipped in current browsers such as IE and Firefox, when accessing sites such as EC sites and services such as internet banking, it is common that SSL/TLS is used when transmitting passwords, credit card numbers, and personal information. Recently, in many sites where encrypted communications is required, SSL/TLS is automatically used without the user's awakening.

3) AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)

In 2001, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) established the US Government standard 128-bit block cipher called the Advanced Encryption Standard. The AES project ran from 1997 to 2000, and AES was based on the "Rijndael" algorithm, proposed by J. Daemen and V. Rijmen, whose security and performance were considered to be the highest among the proposed algorithms.

4) ISO/IEC international standard ciphers

These are the first international standard cipher algorithms selected by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). After changing the focus from ISO/IEC9979 (encryption algorithm registration system), ISO/IEC18033 was standardized as the first international standard cipher, based on third party (NESSIE, CRYPTREC, etc.) security and performance evaluation reports. The 128-bit block ciphers, AES, Camellia, and SEED, are the only ciphers adopted as the next generation standard.

5) EU recommended ciphers

These are recommended encryption primitives selected based on high-level security and performance by the New European Schemes for Signature, Integrity, and Encryption (NESSIE) project conducted from 2000 to 2003 by the European Union (EU). Out of the total 44, including the 39 proposed encryption algorithms, 17 encryption algorithms were selected. The Japanese ciphers Camellia (128-bit block cipher by NTT/Mitsubishi), MISTY1 (64-bit block cipher by Mitsubishi), and PSEC-KEM (Public key encryption by NTT) were selected.

6) Japanese e-government recommended ciphers

These are recommended cryptographic techniques suitable for the Japanese electronic government selected by the Cryptography Research and Evaluation Committees (CRYPTREC) organized to investigate and evaluate them from the viewpoints of various objective specialists in terms of security. Out of the total 66, including the 52 proposed encryption techniques, 31 encryption techniques were selected.

7) Standard Track RFC (Standard Track Requests For Comments)

This is an official draft document opened to the public as a specification for an Internet Standard.