Collisions for Step-Reduced SHA 256 Ivica Nikolić, Alex Biryukov University of Luxembourg

Outline  Short description of SHA-256  Difference between SHA-1 and SHA-2  Technique for finding collisions for SHA-256  20-step reduced SHA-256  21-step reduced SHA-256  23-step reduced SHA-256  25-step reduced SHA-256  Conclusions

Short description of SHA-256  Merkle-Damgard construction (compression function) Input: 512-bits message block bits chaining value Output: 256-bits chaining value  64 steps

Difference between SHA-1 and SHA-2  Number of internal variables  Additional functions - ∑ 0, ∑ 1  Message expansion W i = W i-3 + W i-8 + W i-14 + W i-16 W i = σ 1 (W i-2 )+ W i-7 + σ 0 (W i-15 )+ W i-16 One step of the compression function Message expansion

Difference between SHA-1 and SHA-2 Limit the influence of the new innovations  Additional functions (∑ 0, ∑ 1 ) Find fixed points, i.e. ∑(x)=x. If x,y are fixed points then ∑(x)- ∑(y)=x-y, i.e. ∑ preserves difference.  Message expansion Expanded words don’t use words with differences.

Technique for finding collisions for SHA-256 General technique  Introduce perturbation  Use as less differences as possible to correct the perturbation in the following 8 steps  After the perturbation is gone don’t allow any other new perturbations

Technique for finding collisions for SHA-256  Perturbation in step i  Correct in the following 8 steps  Require the differences for A and E as shown in the table  Get system of equations with the respect to δi and A i or E i  Solve the system ΔAΔAΔBΔBΔCΔCΔDΔDΔEΔEΔFΔFΔGΔGΔHΔHΔWΔW i i δ1δ1 i δ2δ2 i δ3δ3 i i i i i δ4δ4 i

Technique for finding collisions for SHA-256 From the definition of SHA-256, we have Δ A i+4 - Δ E i+4 = Δ∑ 0 (A i+3 ) + ΔMaj i+3 (ΔA i+3, ΔB i+3,ΔC i+3 )-ΔD i+3 Δ E i+4 = Δ∑ 1 (E i+3 ) +ΔChi i+3 (ΔE i+3,ΔF i+3,ΔG i+3 )+ΔH i+3 +ΔD i+3 +ΔW i+3 From the condition for step i+3, we have ΔD i+3 = 0, ΔH i+3 = 0, Δ∑ 0 (A i+3 ) = 0, Δ∑ 1 (E i+3 ) =0. We require ΔA i+4 = 0, Δ E i+4 = 0. So we deduce: ΔMaj i+3 (0,0,1)= 0 ΔW i+3 =- ΔCh i+3 (0,-1,1) Solution: A i+3 =A i+2 δ 3 =-ΔCh i+3 (0,-1,1) ΔAΔAΔBΔBΔCΔCΔDΔDΔEΔEΔFΔFΔGΔGΔHΔHΔWΔW i δ3δ3 i Example – step i+4

Technique for finding collisions for SHA-256 Solution of the system of equations A i-1 = A i+1 = A i+2 = A i+3 A i+1 =-1 E i+3 = E i+4 E i+6 = 0 E i+7 =-1 δ 1 =-1-ΔCh i+1 (1,0,0)- Δ∑ 1 (E i+1 ) δ 2 = Δ∑ 1 (E i+2 ) -ΔCh i+2 (-1,1,0) δ 3 =-ΔCh i+3 (0,-1,1) δ 4 =-1 Unsolved equation (no degrees of freedom left) ΔCh i+3 (0,0,-1)=-1 It holds with probability 1/3.

20-step reduced SHA-256 W x 1x 2x 3x 4x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 x 12 x 13 x 14 x 15x 16xx xx 17xx x x 18xxxx xxx 19xxxx xx x 20xxxxx xxxxx 21xxxx xxxxx x 22xxxxx xxxxxxx x Collision  Perturbation in W 5.  Corrections in W 6, W 7, W 8, W 13.  Message expansion after the step 13 doesn’t use any of these words  Complexity = 1/3

21-step reduced SHA-256 W x 7x 8x 9x x 15 16xx 17 18xx 19 20xx 21xx 22xxxx Collision  Perturbation in W 6.  Corrections in W 7, W 8, W 9, W 14.  Message expansion uses W 9, W 14.  Additional equation is introduced: Δ σ 1 (W 14 ) + Δ W 9 = 0, where Δ W 14 =-1.  Total complexity is 2 19.

23-step reduced SHA-256 W x 10 x 11 x 12 x x 17 x 18 xx 19 xx 20 xx 21 xx 22 xx Semi-free start collision  Perturbation in W 9.  Corrections in W 10, W 11, W 12. W 17 is extended word, so it is not possible to control it directly.  Message expansion uses W 9, W 10, W 11, W 12.  In the original differential path there is no difference in W 16. We have to slightly change our differential path. New system of equations is introduced and solved.  In order to control W 17  Additional equations are introduced in order to keep the differences zero after the last step of the path.  Total complexity is 2 21.

25-step reduced SHA-256 W x 10 x 11 x 12 x x 17 x 18 xx 19 xx 20 xx 21 xx 22 xx Semi-free start near collision with Hamming distance of 17 bits  Extend semi-free start collision for 23-step reduced SHA-256.  Minimize the Hamming distance of the introduced differences for A and E registers.  Total complexity is 2 34.

Conclusions  Technique applicable to SHA-224, SHA-384, and SHA-512.  No real treat for the security of SHA-2.