Re: Summary of key derivation thread

[Russ Housley <housley@vigilsec.com>]

Hugo:

Thanks for the clarifications.  More on my second question.

> > Question 2:  Based on the NIST key management recommendations, a 80 
> bits of
> > security is adequate for protecting sensitive government information until
> > 2015, and 112 bits of security is adequate until 2030.  Which of these
> > targets is the mandatory-to-implement aiming at?  Or, are we after
> > something in the middle, say 96 bits?
>
>I do not know what the "market answer" to this is.
>But even if you take the "NIST minimum" of 80, you need to go for
>a modulus longer than 1024, probably 1200 bits (Hilarie may have precise
>estimates). For 96 bits you already need to exceed the 2048-bit keys.

The NIST key management guidance indicates that 1024-bit Diffie-Hellman and 
1024-bit RSA provide 80 bits of security.  Are you suggesting that this 
guidance is way off?

Russ