why is SHA1 used? How do I get SHA256 to be used?

Robert J. Hansen rjh at sixdemonbag.org
Thu Jul 12 05:36:02 CEST 2012


On 7/11/2012 9:23 PM, brian m. carlson wrote:
> Really?  I'm pretty sure that I'm not generating SHA-1 signatures.

This is not necessarily relevant.

Here's a thought experiment for you.  Someone creates a DSA-1k key and
uses --cert-digest-algo SHA256 and --enable-dsa2.  This creates 160-bit
truncated SHA256 hashes.

This person is at risk from a SHA-1 preimage collision, *despite the
fact they've never generated a single SHA-1 signature*.

All the attacker has to do is create a message which SHA-1s out to the
same value as the truncated SHA-256 of a legitimate message.  At that
point, the forgery becomes possible.

I don't specifically know how you're using SHA-256.  Nor do I especially
want to know.  What I do know is that there are a surprising number of
ways a SHA-1 preimage attack can screw over even people who have never
used SHA-256.

Don't put too much faith in "if I switch to SHA-256 I don't need to
worry about the SHA-1 attacks."  It's probably not true.

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