Cryptographic Key Length Recommendation

In most cryptographic functions, the key length is an important security parameter. Both academic and private organizations provide recommendations and mathematical formulas to approximate the minimum key size requirement for security. Despite the availability of these publications, choosing an appropriate key size to protect your system from attacks remains a headache as you need to read and understand all these papers.

This web site implements mathematical formulas and summarizes reports from well-known organizations allowing you to quickly evaluate the minimum security requirements for your system. You can also easily compare all these techniques and find the appropriate key length for your desired level of protection. The lengths provided here are designed to resist mathematic attacks; they do not take algorithmic attacks, hardware flaws, etc. into account.

1Choose a Method
In 1999, Prof. Arjen K. Lenstra and Prof. Eric R. Verheul described mathematical formulas providing key length recommendations for most cryptographic systems [1]. This is the first publication with a mathematical approach based on concrete parameters. You can use this page to compute results of these equations and easily change parameters used in these formulas.
2   Enter basic parameter
You can enter the year until when your system should be protected and see the corresponding key sizes or you can enter a key/hash/group size and see until when you would be protected.
3 Click here to see options
4
© 2024 BlueKrypt - v 32.3 - May 24, 2020
Authors: Damien Giry, Philippe Bulens
Approved by Prof. Jean-Jacques Quisquater
Contact:
I would like to thank Prof. Arjen K. Lenstra for his kind authorization and comments.
Surveys of laws and regulations on cryptology: Crypto Law Survey / Digital Signature Law Survey.
Bibliography[1] Selecting Cryptographic Key Sizes, Arjen K. Lenstra and Eric R. Verheul, Journal Of Cryptology, vol. 14, p. 255-293, 2001.
[2] Key Lengths, Arjen K. Lenstra, The Handbook of Information Security, 06/2004.
[3] Algorithms, Key Size and Protocols Report (2018), H2020-ICT-2014 – Project 645421, D5.4, ECRYPT-CSA, 02/2018.
[4] Recommendation for Key Management, Special Publication 800-57 Part 1 Rev. 5, NIST, 05/2020.
[5] Mécanismes cryptographiques - Règles et recommandations, Rev. 2.03, ANSSI , 02/2014.
[6] Commercial National Security Algorithm, National Security Agency (NSA), 01/2016.
[7] Determining Strengths for Public Keys Used for Exchanging Symmetric Keys, RFC 3766, H. Orman and P. Hoffman, 04/2004.
[8] Cryptographic Mechanisms: Recommendations and Key Lengths, TR-02102-1 v2020-01, BSI, 03/2020.
Privacy Policy  |  Disclaimer / Copyright  |  Release Notes