BATON
| General | |
|---|---|
| Designers | National Security Agency |
| Cipher detail | |
| Key sizes | 320 bits (160 effective) |
| Block sizes | 96, 128 bits |
BATON is a
United States government to secure classified information
.
While the BATON algorithm itself is secret (as is the case with all algorithms in the NSA's
electronic codebook mode. 160 bits of the key are checksum material. It supports a "shuffle" mode of operation, like the NSA cipher JUNIPER. It may use up to 192 bits as an initialization vector, regardless of the block size.[1]
In response to a
Senate question about encrypted video links, the NSA said that BATON could be used for encryption at speeds higher than those possible with Skipjack.[2]
Usage
BATON is used in a variety of products and standards:
- APCO Project 25(Public standard for land mobile radio) (Algorithm IDs 01 and 41)
- PKCS#11(Public standard for encryption tokens)
- CDSA/CSSM (Another public standard)
- NSA's version of IPsec)
- FNBDT(Advanced flexible voice security protocol)
- Thales Datacryptor 2000 (a British network-encryption box)
- 802.11b PC Card, based on the Sierra chip)
- Fortezza Plus (a PC Card product, used in the STE)
- SafeXcel-3340 (a HAIPIS network-encryption box)
- Numerous embeddable encryption modules: AIM, CYPRIS, MYK-85, Sierra (microchip), etc.
