CT-ISG: Cryptography for Constrained Environments

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

NSF 0524118 Cryptography for Constained Environments John Black Sensor nodes and RFIDs are small networked devices with highly constrained resources; specifically, they often have limited amounts of processing power, radio power, memory, and battery life. Conventional cryptographic algorithms work very well on today's desktop machines, but are too resource-intensive for use in highly-constrained environments. This research investigates novel ways of creating cryptographic objects tailored for constrained environments. The research will build objects such as cryptographic hash functions, one-way hash chains, blockciphers, and other objects using lightweight primitives. It will also investigate methods of obtaining suites of these objects building them all from a single underlying primitive, thereby conserving memory. A second thrust of the proposal involves curricular development to enhance educational awareness of security at the PI's home institution and in local industry. Increased awareness of security issues among those who will enter the workforce as software developers should decrease the frequency of code vulnerabilities in production software.