Cryptographic competitions

CAESAR frequently asked questions

Can I tweak my cipher?

Cipher v2 in the second round is not required to be the same as Cipher v1 in the first round. Designers are free to announce plans for Cipher v2 at any time. However, designers will not be allowed to modify Cipher v1; it is important for evaluators to have stable targets for the duration of the first round.

Will there be a single CAESAR winner?

The CAESAR selection committee will select a portfolio of algorithms. Experience with previous competitions suggests that a single-algorithm portfolio is unlikely to provide as much value as a multiple-algorithm portfolio. Of course, final decisions are up to the selection committee.

Will the CAESAR winners be standards?

Standards committees may find the CAESAR results to be useful, but CAESAR per se is not a standardization project.

Is CAESAR run by NIST?

No. CAESAR is run by the international cryptologic research community. The University of Illinois at Chicago applied to NIST for funding for a "Cryptographic competitions" grant, and is using some of this funding to support CAESAR benchmarking and the Directions in Authenticated Ciphers workshop series, but NIST has not been consulted regarding the CAESAR details. Of course, NIST cryptographers are welcome to provide public input to CAESAR.

Will a CAESAR winner be renamed as the "CAESAR cipher"?

No. The AES competition eventually renamed Rijndael as AES, Rijndael-128 as AES-128, etc.; but CAESAR, like eSTREAM, will not rename any algorithms.

Will selection-committee members be permitted to submit algorithms?

Yes. They will, however, not participate in committee discussions regarding their own algorithms.

Will the selection committee justify its decisions?

The selection committee will issue a report that, for each selected algorithm, cites the previously published analyses that led the algorithm to be selected. This report should not be interpreted as a negative comment regarding other algorithms; an excellent algorithm might fail to be selected simply because not enough analysis was available at the time of the committee decision.

Will there be any appeal of the committee decisions?

No. If submitters disagree with published analyses then they are expected to promptly and publicly respond to those analyses, not to wait for subsequent committee decisions.