Hash Functions I
Analysis of Step-Reduced SHA-256
Florian Mendel1
, Norbert Pramstaller1
, Christian Rechberger1
and Vincent Rijmen1 
| (1) |
Institute for Applied Information Processing and Communications (IAIK), Graz University of Technology, Austria |
Abstract
This is the first article analyzing the security of SHA-256 against fast collision search which considers the recent attacks
by Wang et al. We show the limits of applying techniques known so far to SHA-256. Next we introduce a new type of perturbation vector which
circumvents the identified limits. This new technique is then applied to the unmodified SHA-256. Exploiting the combination
of Boolean functions and modular addition together with the newly developed technique allows us to derive collision-producing
characteristics for step-reduced SHA-256, which was not possible before. Although our results do not threaten the security
of SHA-256, we show that the low probability of a single local collision may give rise to a false sense of security.
The work in this paper has been supported by CRYPTREC.