computer science

NESSIE

NESSIE is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NESSIE rather than just read about it. In short: NESSIE (New European Schemes for Signatures, Integrity and Encryption) was a European research project funded from 2000 to 2003 to identify secure cryptographic primitives. The project was comparable to the NIST AES process and the Japanese Government-sponsored CRYPTREC project, but with notable differences from both.

Key takeaways

NESSIE belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NESSIE to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NESSIE from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NESSIE (New European Schemes for Signatures, Integrity and Encryption) was a European research project funded from 2000 to 2003 to identify secure cryptographic primitives. The project was comparable to the NIST AES process and the Japanese Government-sponsored CRYPTREC project, but with notable differences from both. In particular, there is both overlap and disagreement between the selections and recommendations from NESSIE and CRYPTREC (as of the August 2003 draft report). The NESSIE participants include some of the foremost active cryptographers in the world, as does the CRYPTREC project. NESSIE was intended to identify and evaluate quality cryptographic designs in several categories, and to that end issued a public call for submissions in March 2000. Forty-two were received, and in February 2003 twelve of the submissions were selected. In addition, five algorithms already publicly known, but not explicitly submitted to the project, were chosen as "selectees". The project has publicly announced that "no weaknesses were found in the selected designs".

Selected algorithms The selected algorithms and their submitters or developers are listed below. The five already publicly known, but not formally submitted to the project, are marked with a "*". Most may be used by anyone for any purpose without needing to seek a patent license from anyone; a license agreement is needed for those marked with a "#", but the licensors of those have committed to "reasonable non-discriminatory license terms for all interested", according to a NESSIE project press release. None of the six stream ciphers submitted to NESSIE were selected because every one fell to cryptanalysis. This surprising result led to the eSTREAM project.

Block ciphers MISTY1: Mitsubishi Electric AES*: (Advanced Encryption Standard) (NIST, FIPS Pub 197) (aka Rijndael) Camellia: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone and Mitsubishi Electric SHACAL-2: Gemplus

Collision-Resistant Hash Functions WHIRLPOOL: Scopus Tecnologia S.A. and K.U.Leuven SHA-256*, SHA-384* and SHA-512*: NSA, (US FIPS 180-2)

Message Authentication Codes UMAC: Intel Corp, Univ. of Nevada at Reno, IBM Research Laboratory, Technion Institute, and Univ. of California at Davis Two-Track-MAC: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and debis AG EMAC: Berendschot et al. HMAC*: (ISO/IEC 9797-1);

Asymmetric encryption schemes PSEC-KEM: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp RSA-KEM*: RSA key exchange mechanism (draft of ISO/IEC 18033-2) ACE Encrypt#: IBM Zurich Research Laboratory

Digital signature algorithms RSA-PSS: RSA Laboratories ECDSA: Certicom Corp SFLASH: Schlumberger Corp (SFLASH was broken in 2007 and should not be used anymore).

Asymmetric Identification Schemes GPS-auth: Ecole Normale Supérieure, France Télécom, and La Poste

Other entrants Entrants that did not get past the first stage of the contest include Noekeon, Q, Nimbus, NUSH, Grand Cru, Anubis, Hierocrypt, SC2000, and LILI-128.

Project contractors The contractors and their representatives in the project were:

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Prime contractor): Bart Preneel, Alex Biryukov, Antoon Bosselaers, Christophe de Cannière, Bart Van Rompay École Normale Supérieure: Jacques Stern, Louis Granboulan, Gwenaëlle Martinet Royal Holloway, University of London: Sean Murphy, Alex Dent, Rachel Shipsey, Christine Swart, Juliette White Siemens AG: Markus Dichtl, Marcus Schafheutle Technion Institute of Technology: Eli Biham, Orr Dunkelman, Vladimir Furman Université catholique de Louvain: Jean-Jacques Quisquater, Mathieu Ciet, Francesco Sica Universitetet i Bergen: Lars Knudsen, Håvard Raddum

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NESSIE

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NESSIE claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NESSIE before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NESSIE ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NESSIE

In research: NESSIE appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NESSIE in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NESSIE is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics College and university associations and consortia in Europe, Cryptography contests, Cryptography standards, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NESSIE outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NESSIE in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NESSIE means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NESSIE out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NESSIE in simple terms?

Why does NESSIE matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NESSIE?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NESSIE.