Report on the development of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

In 1997, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiate d a process to select a symmetric-key encryption algorithm to be used to pr otect sensitive (unclassified) Federal information in furtherance of NIST's statutory responsibilities. In 1998, NIST announced the acceptance of 15 c andidate algorithms and requested the assistance of the cryptographic resea rch community in analyzing the candidates. This analysis included an initia l examination of the security and efficiency characteristics for each algor ithm. NIST reviewed the results of this preliminary research and selected M ARS, RC(TM), Rijndael, Serpent and Twofish as finalists. Having reviewed fu rther public analysis of the finalists, NIST has decided to propose Rijndae l as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The research results and ratio nale for this selection are documented in this report.