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posted by CoolHand on Thursday April 30 2015, @11:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the we're-not-really-just-procrastinating-honest! dept.

The Register covers the difficulty of putting SHA-1 crypto algorithm to bed:

The road towards phasing out the ageing SHA-1 crypto hash function is likely to be littered with potholes, security experts warn.

SHA-1 is a hashing (one-way) function that converts information into a shortened "message digest", from which it is impossible to recover the original information. This hashing technique is used in digital signatures, verifying that the contents of software downloads have not been tampered with, and many other cryptographic applications.

The ageing SHA-1 protocol – published in 1995 – is showing its age and is no longer safe from Collision Attacks, a situation where two different blocks of input data throw up the same output hash. This is terminal for a hashing protocol, because it paves the way for hackers to offer manipulated content that carries the same hash value as pukka packets of data.

Certificate bodies and others are beginning to move on from SHA-1 to its replacement, SHA-2. Microsoft announced its intent to deprecate SHA-1 in Nov 2013. More recently, Google joined the push with a decision to make changes in he latest version of its browser, Chrome version 42, so that SHA-1 certificates are flagged up as potentially insecure.

Just updating to SHA-2 is not as simple as it might seem, because of compatibility issues with Android and Windows XP. More specifically, Android before 2.3 and XP before SP3 are incompatible with the change (a fuller compatibility matrix maintained by digital certificate firm GlobalSign can be found here).

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @07:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @07:32AM (#177389)

    That's a *GREAT* idea... It's right there on par with "Let's have everyone vote... everyone's informed right? People will make the bet choice and we'll never be ruled by idiots! What could go wrong?"